To differ and to distinguish

[Terminator]

Hi All! When Must I use to differ? When must I use To distinguish!
Many thaks

Terminator :evil:

[Torsten]

Hi Terminator,

Two or more things can differ from each other. That means, they are different.
You can distinguish between two or more things. That means, you recognize them as different.

TOEIC listening, photographs: Mailing letters

[Terminator]

[Chocolatee]

Hi! I think what you are trying to say is, "I can't differentiate this book from one another." However, I'm not quite sure what you are trying to say. I think there is always a way to differentiate one book from the other. Well, let's wait what the teachers have to say on this.

[Alan]

Hi chocolatee,

There are two verbs: differ and differentiate.

Differ is an intransitive verb (has no object) and means be different from and differentiate is a transitive verb (takes an object) (and also intransitive ) and means make a difference between. Look at these sentences:

Both these bottles look the same but one differs from the other because one has a red label and the other a green label. In that way you can differentiate one from the other

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Chocolatee]

Oh, okay. Your explanation makes a lot of sense. Thank you for giving us this great explanation and these good examples.