as vs like when giving examples

thetazuo

thetazuo

Senior Member
China
Chinese - China
1. Some animals, as dogs and cats, eat meat.
2. Sound waves can travel only through a medium, as air or water.

英语常见问题解答大词典

Hi. As quoted above, "as" can be used to give examples. But I also found Practical English Usage says the following:
We can use like to give examples.

She’s good at scientific subjects, like mathematics. (NOT … as mathematics.)
Click to expand...
So my questions are:
Do the following versions work?
1. Some animals, like dogs and cats, eat meat.
2. Sound waves can travel only through a medium, like air or water.
3. She’s good at scientific subjects, as mathematics and physics.

I think that we have to list at least two examples for "as" to work in the sense of "for instance".
Am I on the right track?
Thank you.
 
    • Your first two sentences at the top, as well as number 3 at the bottom, are not correct - we wouldn’t use “as” by itself there. Rather, “Some animals, such as dogs and cats, eat meat.”

    “Like” is possible in your examples in informal speech or writing, but I think “such as” is better in formal writing.
     
    I have no idea why Merriam Webster would include “as” as interchangeable with “such as” in that context; it’s frustrating they didn’t provide a full example sentence. As a native speaker, it sounds entirely wrong to me, and it’s also not a usage I ever recall coming across.

    The Cambridge Dictionary, for example, explicitly lists this usage as incorrect (see the “Warning” box on the linked page).
     
    As can indeed be used as an alternative to such as. I understand it to be a traditional usage that was largely dropped, over time, in British English but retained in American English — and/or in academic writing (and common in dictionaries!). However, it doesn’t work in your examples, as has been said. And personally, I would never ever use it that way.

    Note that, out of context, “as dogs and cats” would probably be taken to mean in the form of dogs and cats, rather than “dogs and cats, for example”. So your two examples read as though they mean:

    1. Some animals, as dogs and cats, eat meat.
    = Some animals, in the form/guise of dogs and cats, eat meat. :eek:​
    2. Sound waves can travel only through a medium, as air or water.
    = Sound waves can travel only through a medium, in the form of air or water. :eek:​
     
    Yes. It only seems to be used in limited formal/written contexts. But Merriam-Webster has as its 2nd definition of as, as an adverb:

    2 : for instance : such as
    various trees, as oak or pine​
     
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