similar vs. similarly

[Pall]

Dear Friends,

Is 'similarly' absolutely wrong in:

Similarly to Tom, Joe has good grades at school.

Is 'similar' better (the only good solution) here?

Thank you.

Pall

 

[2006]

Welcome!

Is 'similarly' absolutely wrong in: Yes, it's wrong.

Similarly to Tom, Joe has good grades at school.

Is 'similar' the only good choice here? Yes, it is.
Thank you.

Pall

2006

 

[Nightmare85]

Maybe we can use similarly in such a sentence:
I drive cars similarly to my father.

I have no idea if this sentence is okay, someone please check

Cheers!

 

[corum]

I drive cars similarly to my father. :tick:

 

[corum]

Try these, Nightmare:
British National Corpus (BYU-BNC)
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)

They are good sources for samples of usage

 

[Raymott]

Dear Friends,

Is 'similarly' absolutely wrong in:

Similarly to Tom, Joe has good grades at school.

Is 'similar' better (the only good solution) here?

Thank you.

Pall

"Similarly" is right and acceptable, at least to my ears and sense of grammar.
It's an adverb. "Similar" is an adjective. You are comparing "having grades" - the verb component.

"Similarly to Tom, John walks with a limp."
"Similar to Tom, John has slightly darker hair." This means that Tom is similar
to John but has slightly darker hair.
"Similarly to Tom, John has slightly darker hair." This means that, like John, Tom has slightly darker hair [than someone else].

 

[emsr2d2]

"Similarly" is right and acceptable, at least to my ears and sense of grammar.
It's an adverb. "Similar" is an adjective. You are comparing "having grades" - the verb component.

I would agree that "Similarly to Tom" sounds fine.

As far as the example of "I drive cars similarly to my father" goes, this sounds rather strange. Do you mean that you drive cars in the same way as your father (ie you both drive fast/slowly/badly/well etc), or do you mean specifically that you drive cars (not motorbikes, buses, lorries etc) as does your father, or did you actually mean that you drive similar cars to those that your father drove?!

 

[2006]

Similarly to Tom, Joe has good grades at school. This sentence sounds very odd to me.

The way I see it, "Similar(ly)" refers to "Joe", not to "has" or "good". We have to remember that the subject of the sentence is "Joe".
(Similar to)(Like) Tom, Joe has good grades at school.

The meaning of the sentence is that 'Joe is similar to Tom in that he has good grades at school.'
Pall

2006

 

[Raymott]

Similarly to Tom (adv), Joe has good grades at school
As has Tom (adv), Joe has good grades at school.
Like Tom [has] (adv), Joe has good grades at school.
How, in what manner, etc. (adv) does Joe have good grades? - like Tom has.

Differently from Tom, John took three attempts to pass the exam. (Adv)
(John took three attempts to pass the exam - differently from Tom, who passed on first go.)

More quickly than Tom, John reached the finish line. (Adv)
(John reached the finish line more quickly than Tom did.)
[Being] Quicker than Tom, John reached the finish line first. (Adj)