What is the difference between?

A house and a home?
A frog and a toad?
a casket and a coffin?
a bathroom and a restroom?
an accident and an incident?
a centipede and a millipede?

Web, I just made a thread about ''coffin'' and ''casket'' not to long ago. Check it out. http://www.antimoon.com/forum/2004/4009.htm

An accident was something that wasnt' done on purpose and an incident was jsut something that happened.

The difference between a centipede and millipede is one is bigger and has more legs than the other. It is commonly said that a centipede has 100 and a millipede has 1000 but that isn't true, there is a wide range in the number of legs it has.

P.S. It might be the other way around on the "pedes"

Bathroom = restroom (same thing)

Frogs and toads are similar, but different animals. Look it up on the Internet. I"m sure you can get a much better explanation than the one I could give you.

See my explanation about coffins and caskets in the respective thread.

A house is merely the structure one lives in. A home is the personal aspect of it. Turning a house into a home requires an attachment to the house....i.e. seeing the house as a special place associated with family dwelling, memories, love, growing up, comfort etc.

A terrorist and a freedom fighter?

A house and a home could be similar, but a home doesn't have to be a house. A person's home could be a caravan or even a cave.

Frogs and toads are different animals. They are not different names for the same animal.

Casket is just the American word for coffin. They are both the same thing.

Centipedes and millipedes are two different creatures.


The French language cannot distinguish betwen "house" and "home." They just have "maison" which means "house." They don't have a word for "home." French also cannot distinguish between "mind" and "brain", between "man" and "gentleman", and between "I wrote" and "I have written." So English has two words for some things in which French only has one word for it. Spanish cannot distinguish betwen "chairman" and "president." Italian has no equivalent of "wishful thinking." There are no words in Russian for "efficiency", "challenge", "engagement ring", "have fun", or "take care." So whereas other languages only have one word for something, English has two or more. In fact, English is the only language in existence that has, or needs, books of synonyms like "Roget's Thesaurus." Most seakers of other languages aren't even aware that thesauruses exist.

«The French language cannot distinguish betwen "house" and "home." They just have "maison" which means "house."»

With all due respect this is wrong.
Home => Chez soi.
House => Maison.


«French also cannot distinguish between "mind" and "brain"»

This is also wrong.
Mind => Esprit.
Brain => Cerveau.


«between "man" and "gentleman"»

Wrong.
Man => Homme.
Gentleman => Monsieur (or also "Gentleman" but this one is passé).*


«and between "I wrote" and "I have written."»

Wrong.
I wrote => J'écrivis (simple past), J'écrivais (imperfect past).*
I have written => J'ai écrit (composed past).*


Also, French uses "dictionaire des synonymes" for "thesaurus".


So, Adam, the spirit of what you say is true, but your examples are wrong.


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* Only they are not used in the same circumstances than they are in English.

''House'' and ''home'', A house is a kind of of home. A home can either be a house, apartment, condo or even cave if someone lives there. And if no one lives in the house it's not a home.

''Coffin'' and ''casket'' have been mentioned on this forum before, take a look at the thread the PHP started. Ignore what Adam has to say about the difference of the ''coffin'' and the ''casket'' because he's wrong.

''Bathroom'' and ''restroom'', A bathroom is a in a residence such as a house, apartment and hotel. A restroom is in public places such as stores and restaurants. The word ''bathroom'' is often used for both.

''Centipede'' and ''millipede'', A centipede has a hundred feet while a millipede has a thousand feet.

"Esprit" doesn't mean "mind". It means "spirit".

In English we have "Brain", "Mind", "Spirit". French just has "Brain" and "Spirit."

"Chez soi" approximately means "at the house of.....". English also has "at the house of....", but it has the word "home", which French DOESN'T have.

I got my information from "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson and I also speak French.

Casket is just an American word for coffin. They are both exactly the same thing. According to my dictionary-


1. casket
n. chiefly N. Amer. a coffin.



2. coffin
n. a long, narrow box in which a dead body is buried or cremated

The French have to use the word "esprit" which means "spirit" when they are talking about the mind. But the English have the word "spirit" and the word "mind". In English, a spirit just means a ghost. In French it means a ghost or the mind. English has its own unique word for the mind, whereas French has to use "spirit."

Adam said: "Casket is just an American word for coffin. They are both exactly the same thing."

Regardless of what your dictionary says, the term "coffin" is used in the U.S. too, but it's shaped differently than a casket. See the thread on coffin/casket for an explanation and pictures.

Adam, When you say ''my diictionary'' what exact dictionary are you talking about. ''Websters'' or some other dictionary. I don't think that dictionary you have is a very good dictionary. I'd recommend that you get a dictionary. In book stores they sure do sell better dictionaries and their are plenty of dictionaries on the internet. Here are some,

Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=dictionary

And

Merriam-Websters
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=dictionary

These are American dictionaries and you can see that they do list ''coffin'' in them. Why would they have the word ''coffin'' in them if that word wasn't used in America. Adam, you are wrong about saying that ''coffin'' is not used in America. Your dictionary is telling the wrong thing.

Here's something that The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Said about the ''coffin/casket'' thing.

casket, coffin (nn.)


Coffin is the generic term in English, but casket has been an American euphemism for coffin for more than a century, credited usually to undertakers’ efforts to prettify death. There is frequent objection to casket, but it seems well established, with some evidence of a semantic distinction: a coffin (the regular British term) is usually coffin-shaped, tapered roughly like a flat-faceted mummy case; a casket is essentially a regular rectangular box. (People used to keep jewels and other valuables in small caskets, but today these are jewel boxes, perhaps in part because casket has become so funereal.)

I'd still like to know what the differenece between a terrorist and a freedom fighter is. This is a serious question, and I'm no troll.