Relationship x Relationship: Do you know the difference? -Clark and Miller (2023)

Today you will discover the difference betweenrelationshipyRelationship. take a look tooFamily vocabulary: family members in English.

Fast! Answer these questions:

1. Say "I'm in arelationship' or 'I'm in aRelationship“?
2. ¿Visits?relationshipoRelationsThe next week?
3. there is oneRelationshipbetween the sun and the earth? or is there arelationshipbetween the sun and the earth?

The wordsrelationshipyRelationshipit can be a little confusing.

But they don't have to be. Read on to discover the differences.

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the meaning ofrelationship

we userelationshiptalk about family

★relationshipIt can mean "member of your family".

relationshipyrelativesometimes they have the same meaning.

So you might say, "I can't play paintball with you this weekend, I have to go see mine."relationship.“

Or you can say, "I can't play paintball with you this weekend, I have to go see mine."Relations.“

The difference?

There's no difference. Some people prefer to userelativeand some people preferrelationship.

★ The phrase "unrelated" can help in confusing situations

We also have the expression "unrelated".

We use it to prevent people from getting confused when two unrelated people have the same last name.

You can simply add the phrase "unrelated" after the name, which can be confusing.

"James Thompson was in court today and he accused Cindy Thompson ofno relationshipto steal your bunny."

"When I was in Washington, I met a politician named Angello Trump,no relationship.“

You can also use the question "Any relationship?" to ask if someone is related to another person with the same name.

Suppose you want to join David Attenborough's fan club.

And why not? I mean, David Attenborough is amazing:

So you go to the David Attenborough fan club office and meet the fan club president.

He says his name and you are a little taken aback.

Her name is Charlene Attenborough.

Is she related to David?

WordRelationscan describe how well people get along with each other

★ We useRelationsfor larger groups of people

we can use the wordRelationsto describe how well things are between groups of people.

We often use it for large groups of people, such as countries, companies and their shareholders, orextended families.

So we can talk about how a company needs to improveRelationswith its shareholders.

WhatRelationsbetween India and Scotland are currently excellent.

Note that we say "relationships with..." or "relationships between... and...".

It is also important to note that this word is quite formal. You'll see it in the papers and often hear it on the news.

★ Common collocations withRelations

Describing how groups of people get along with each other can sometimes be a touchy subject.

Therefore, for these cases, there are many collocations with the wordRelations:

We use the expression "race relations' to describe how good or bad things are between different races in a country.

When two countries get angry and decide to stop talking to each other (as if they were four year olds), then we can say that they have broken up (or split up).diplomatic relations.

„Comercial relations“Across countries” refers to how well countries do business with each other.

And when you're a big, bad, bad company doing big, bad, bad things, you need a good PR team.

And what does PR mean?

public relation, Clear!

They are the people who try to make sure everyone sees the company as the good guys. Even if they kill puppies. With oil.

Use "relative to" to compare connecting things

★ Use relative to compare two things

Let's say you have an amazing job in public relations. You earn a lot of money.

But you are not satisfied.

You want to do something more interesting and satisfying.

So quit your job and follow your dream of training dogs for Hollywood.

A much cooler job, right?

But if you compare the salary with the old job, it is much lower.

So you can say your new job pays a lot lessin relation toyour father

It is the same as "compared to".

“The population of the city is very large.in relation toyour size".

“Cats have very small brainsin relation toHow much can they really remember? My cat never forgave me for eating her catnip."

★ Use "relative to" to connect two ideas

"Regarding" can also connect two ideas or themes.

It's a different, more formal way of saying it.em.

Let's take an example.

This is Nancy. Nancy is a popular DJ.

But yesterday she was interviewed live on TV and told everyone that she believes the world is flat and that it was created by singing elephants.

Now everyone wants to know if Nancy really believes that.

So, of course, her PR team needs to step in to make sure she doesn't look even more ridiculous.

This sentence is definitely quite formal and can be especially useful in academic situations:

“There were no convincing theoriesin relation tosuccessful time travel.”

“These plants need a lot of extra attention, especially in winter.in relation towater levels".

the meaning ofRelationship

WordRelationshipis used similarly to the wordrelationship.

However, there are some important differences.

UseRelationshipto describe the situation with your partner

★ "In a relationship" can describe your status

Do you remember when Facebook started and it was only available in English?

Many of my students were picking up interesting vocabulary at the time, words likeIf thenyWelle.

Some of them also learned the phrase "relationship status" as well as the different possible options for "relationship status".

Of course there were the classics: single, married, engaged.

There was the interesting thing: it's complicated.

She was"in a relationship.“

Or also "in a relationship withBarry McBarry” (or anyone you were in a relationship with in the past).

If you say you're in a relationship, you might be married; They could just be partners. It doesn't matter.

What matters is the love that grows between you each day, right?

★ Relationship can also be called an abstract concept

When two people come together and become partners, sometimes things go well and sometimes things don't go so well.

If we want to talk about it subjectively, we can talk about relationship as a concept.

"They areRelationshipgetting worse".

it reminds mea line from Annie Hall to Woody Allen:

"ANRelationship, I think it's like a shark. You must move forward or you will die. And I think what we have here is a dead shark."

When a relationship is on the rocks, maybe it's time to get off Facebook andwork on the relationship.

WordRelationshipcan describe how well people get along with each other

"Wait a minute! You said the same thing about the WordRelations!” i can hear you say

And you are right.

But there are some differences.

★ We useRelationshipfor smaller groups of people

as we saw aboveRelationscan describe how things are between countries, cities, extended families, companies, etc.

But when we want to make things more personal, more human, we use the wordRelationshipinstead.

Interestingly, we often useRelationshipwith words likeintestineoMal.

“We guarantee a fantastic environmentRelationshipwith our customers."

"DieRelationshipbetween brothers is terrible at this point.

★ Common phrases likeRelationship

If a business relationship starts well, you can say yesestablished a good relationship.

So you can ensure that things keep getting better.build the relationshipostrengthen the relationship.

This can sometimes take some time.

maybe you worked on itbuild a relationshipwith one of his colleagues for a while, but that didn't happen.

So you have to go on a business trip together for a weekend. The two do a great job of signing an agreement and then enjoy a nice dinner talking about future travels and working more together.

That weekend when everything went right? That's when youconsolidate your relationship.

Since then, he has worked very well with this colleague: he hasa good working relationship.

When you have different roles in the relationship (for example, doctor and patient or parent and child), it is customary to say the roles before the wordRelationship.

So you can talk about adoctor-patient relationship, anparent-child relationship, the onestudent-teacher relationship.

You can useRelationshipto talk about how things and people are connected

When a butterfly flaps its wings in Argentina, Barry forgets to brush his teeth in Dundee.

We all know each other in the world by just seven degrees of separation. That said, I know you through (more) friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend from the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend of the friend.

And let's not forget: we are ALL related!

Everything is connected!

But of course some things are more closely related than others.

We can use the expression "relation between" to describe (or ask) how (or how closely) two things are related.

"There is a strongrelationship betweena plant-based diet and a longer life.”

Dierelationship betweenPunk music and politics are unbreakable!

That's it, you should now be able to use it.relationshipyRelationshiplike a ninja!

But before we finish, can you answer these questions?

1. Which country has particularly good diplomatic relations with your country?
2. How do you try to establish good relationships with people at work?
3. What is the relationship between a pencil and a cassette?

Answer in the comments!

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