“Like” or “such as”? I guess I don’t care

January 27th, 2009 at 07:00am Barry Wood

The longer you study this crazy language of ours, the more you’ll find areas of disagreement among the experts. This probably explains why I tend to be less pedantic than when I was younger: I’m less sure that I know it all now.

As an example, you find a lot of hairsplittting over choosing between “like” and “such as” before examples. Mark Davidson, in “Right, Wrong, and Risky,” has a simple explanation of the distinction drawn by some: “like” is “for showing resemblance” and “such as” is “for introducing examples.” His illustration using both: “Brilliant educators like Sally exhibit qualities such as dedication and diligence.”

In “Lapsing Into a Comma,” Bill Walsh adds this bit of fine-tuning: “The phrase ‘players like Borg, Connors and McEnroe’ can be read as excluding the very players it mentions. If the meaning is ‘Borg, Connors, McEnroe and players like them,’ you could phrase it just like that, or you could write ‘players such as Borg, Connors and McEnroe.’ ”

I’m going to side with the more permissive commentators on this one. In “Woe Is I,” while acknowledging there can be exceptions, Patricia T. O’Conner writes: “It’s a matter of taste — either is acceptable. To my ear, ‘like’ sounds better; ’such as’ has a more formal air.”

I’m not a big fan of formality: It may come from those wool dress pants when I was a boy. Besides, I prefer to put my ‘don’t do that!’ energy into other usage problems. Some of those also feature “as,” which I’ll address in upcoming entries.

Entry Filed under: word choices, strict usage