compare to/with, in comparasion with/to

[wpqin]

Dear Teachers:

What's the difference in using "compare to/with, comparision with/to"？

An example from Cambridge Dictionaies is:
If you compare house prices in the two areas it's quite amazing how different they are.

May I say "I compared the house prices between east and west."?

[Anonymous]

Dear Teachers:

What's the difference in using "compare to/with, comparision with/to"？

An example from Cambridge Dictionaies is:
If you compare house prices in the two areas it's quite amazing how different they are.

May I say "I compared the house prices between east and west."?

That sentence does not sound very typical of English. I would not use "between" in this case.

Here is how I would write your sentence:

I compared the house prices in the east to the house prices in the west.

Here is how I would write the sentence using "with":

I compared the house prices in the east with the house prices in the west.

I compared the house prices in the east and the west with each other.

The house prices in the east and the west are not comparable. - They are very different.

[wpqin]

Thanks!