Thread: same, similar, looks like, different

Originally Posted by kib

2 and 3 mean the same in English? My Russain sentences do mean the same.

"similar" is almost the same meaning as "looks like" but it doesn't necessarily refer to phyiscal appearance. For example "our cars don't look the same, but they are similar in quality"

наши машины разные по внешнему виду но почти одинаковые по качеству

I don't think there's really an exact Russian equivalent to the word "similar" - at least I've seen a lot of Russian people use it incorrectly - the closest translation would be почти, но не полностью, одинаковые,

for example I often hear stuff like "almost similar" which doesn't make any sense - since "similar" already contains the meaning of "almost"