expand/ extend

[moonlike]

Hi
I can't take in what exactly is the difference between "expand" and "extend". There are two examples here which I found in the course book:

1. We'd like to expand our business and start producing different kinds of kitchen equipment.
2. We have extended the house at the back and now we have a much bigger kitchen.

I inferred some ideas but after reading different examples in my dictionary I got kind of mixed up (I think maybe extend refers to making something bigger and this extra space is directly attached to the previous one, but in expand it's not attached. I mean you can expand your business and have different branches around the country.)

Could you kindly help me with it?
Thanks a million.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi
I can't take in what exactly is the difference between "expand" and "extend". There are two examples here which I found in the course book:

1. We'd like to expand our business and start producing different kinds of kitchen equipment.
2. We have extended the house at the back and now we have a much bigger kitchen.

I inferred some ideas but after reading different examples in my dictionary I got kind of mixed up (I think maybe extend refers to making something bigger and this extra space is directly attached to the previous one, but in expand it's not attached. I mean you can expand your business and have different branches around the country.)

Could you kindly help me with it?
Thanks a million.

"To expand" can mean to make something bigger physically or in number.
"To extend" generally means to make something bigger physically.

If you add a room attached to the back of your house, it's called an extension, not an expansion, so you have extended your kitchen.

My waistline is expanding = I'm getting bigger.
I'm expanding my business = I'm doing more business, need more staff, opening more branches etc.

 

[moonlike]

"To expand" can mean to make something bigger physically or in number.
"To extend" generally means to make something bigger physically.


Thanks ems. So in one aspect they have the same meaning. Make something bigger. Regarding the following example, can we use extend as well in the first example?
Thanks a million.

My waistline is expanding = I'm getting bigger.

 

[BobK]

:up: But do some research into collocations.

For example, BNC gives these for 'expanding + <noun>'

1 EXPANDING MARKET 16
2 EXPANDING POPULATION 13
3 EXPANDING UNIVERSE 13
4 EXPANDING NUMBER 10
5 EXPANDING FIELD 9
6 EXPANDING BUSINESS 9
7 EXPANDING AREA 9
8 EXPANDING ECONOMY 7
9 EXPANDING ROLE 7
10 EXPANDING TOWNS 7
...

And these for 'extending + <noun>'

1 EXTENDING CREDIT 8
2 EXTENDING CHOICE 5
3 EXTENDING POLICE 3
4 EXTENDING LADDER 3
5 EXTENDING FREEDOM 3
6 EXTENDING RIGHTS 3
7 EXTENDING TABLE 3
8 EXTENDING COMPETITION 2
9 EXTENDING COVERAGE 2
10 EXTENDING LOANS 2
...

There's a fair amount of overlap in the ideas, but certain collocations are commoner: waistlines expand, whereas arms extend [unless they're actually growing in circumference].

b

PS
There's also some subtlety regarding the sequence of events: in a history book you might see something like 'London was expanding; by 1950 it extended as far as Ealing to the West, Harrow to the north [etc etc....] - in this case, 'expand' refers to what it does and 'extend' refs to its state (its extent) after it has expanded.