 Very similar English words. What's the difference? From espressoenglish.net. Today's lesson comes from a student question which was very good. She asked about the difference between effective and efficient, suitable and appropriate, benefit and advantage, and distinguish and differentiate. These words are all extremely similar but I'll try to explain clearly how they are used slightly differently. Let's start with effective and efficient. If something is effective, it is good at achieving goals and accomplishing the desired result. And if something is efficient, it works in a way that does not waste resources. So the word effective focuses more on the goals and the word efficient describes the process. Here are some examples of effective things that help you accomplish goals. An effective diet helps you lose weight successfully. An effective medicine cures a disease. An effective solution successfully resolves the problem. Now look at these examples of things that are efficient with no waste in the process. An efficient machine functions while using a minimum amount of energy. An efficient process is one where there are no extra or unnecessary activities. And an efficient worker is someone who doesn't waste time or effort. To illustrate the difference between effective and efficient, let's imagine a factory that is supposed to produce shoes. If the factory produces shoes, but the machines are old and the machines waste energy, and there are too many employees who make mistakes and waste time, then the factory is effective, it accomplishes its goal of producing shoes, but it is not efficient because there is lots of waste in its process. Now let's consider the other situation. If all the machines in the factory are new and streamlined and the workers are excellent at their jobs, but the factory produces hats instead of shoes, then the factory is efficient because the process runs very smoothly, but it is not effective. It does not produce the desired result. It's producing the wrong product, in fact. Let's turn our attention to suitable and appropriate. The word suitable describes when something is good to use for a specific purpose. And the word appropriate refers more to what is accepted culturally and socially. So here are some examples of things that are suitable. They are good for a purpose. A winter coat is suitable for keeping you warm. A light jacket is not suitable. A laptop case is suitable for protecting your computer from damage. A plastic bag is not suitable for this purpose. What about things that are appropriate or socially acceptable? Nice clothes are appropriate for a job interview. Wearing a swimsuit is not appropriate for a job interview. It is appropriate to kiss your spouse, that's your husband or wife, on the mouth. But it is not appropriate to kiss someone you've just met on the mouth. Okay, so something that is suitable is good for a purpose and something that is appropriate is socially or culturally acceptable. How about benefit and advantage? Well, both benefit and advantage refer to a good thing. The word benefit can be both a noun meaning a good thing and a verb meaning to get good things or to be helped. The only slight difference is that advantage is sometimes used in the sense of comparison or being better than something else. Here are some examples. Exercising regularly has many benefits. There are many good things or good results that come from exercising regularly. All the students will benefit from the new textbooks. Here benefit is being used as a verb meaning the students will be helped by the new textbooks or their experience will be better due to the new textbooks. Now consider these examples with advantage. The advantage of studying online is that you don't need to drive to school. In this sentence, advantage is being used in the sense of comparing studying online and studying in a school. So it's saying that studying online is not just good, but it's actually better in this aspect. Being tall is an advantage in basketball. In other words, if you're tall you have an advantage. You have something better than the other players. So advantage is being used in the sense of comparison. Finally, let's look at distinguish and differentiate. Both of these words mean to observe or understand the difference between things and they can often be used interchangeably. In casual spoken English, a more common way to express this is tell the difference. For example, I can't distinguish between Australian English and New Zealand English or you could say I can't differentiate but it's most common to say I can't tell the difference between Australian English and New Zealand English. All three can be used here and they're all correct. They all have the same meaning. The word differentiate can have the additional meaning of making something different to cause the difference, not just to observe it. For example, let's imagine you and your coworkers are designing a new company logo. Someone might say, our company logo is too similar to our competitor's logo. We need to differentiate it a little more. In this case, differentiate means not just to observe the difference but to make it different, to make our logo distinct from the competitor's logo. Also, if a person is described as distinguished, that's an adjective, that means he or she is famous, excellent, or has a great appearance or great behavior. For example, a distinguished scientist or a distinguished actress. But the word differentiated cannot be used in this way. If you liked this lesson, then you will love my e-book, 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained, which will help you learn all the differences with clear explanations and examples. It's available at espressoenglish.net. Just click on e-books and look for 600 Plus Confusing English Words Explained.