Differences between 類似 and ような

Question

Is there any difference to how and when 類似 and ような are used? For example:

英国で同じようなことです。

英国で類似のことです。

Thanks.

Answer 1

Although "同じような" and "類似の" look like saying the same thing, there is a clear difference of the nuance.

“同じ” means “exactly same and identical.” "同じ" and　”同じような” are different. The latter means “something that looks like the same.”

“類似” means “similar to” or “resemble each other.” Thus “類似のこと” means “something similar to the other(s).” or “a thing resembling sth.”

By degree, “同じ – the same” is 100% identical, “ほぼ同じ” would mean, say 80 -90 % identical. “類似　– similar” is, say, 70 – 90 in common, though judgemental.

In addition, "類似" sounds formal and bookish as compared with "同じような" and "似た."

Answer 2

ような is more colloquial than 類似. E.g. 類似 would be very rarely used in a conversation. Conversely, 類似 is preferred when something should sound official, e.g. 以下に類似する行為一切を禁止する. If you say 以下のような行為一切を禁止する it sounds slightly odd because 一切 is very formal while ような isn't.

You can also use 類似 to create nouns like 類似品、類似行為、類似物 but you can't do that with ような.

Answer 3

Really hard to explain without the context of those sentences.

英国で同じようなことです。

英国で類似のことです。

There really is no difference between these and you would be fine to use either on them.

I will attempt to explain the differences. Both pretty much do the same thing in a lot of circumstances.　They are both used to describe a resemblance or similarity between something eg,

これの類似品{るいじひん}が出回{でまわ}っている

これと同{おな}じような品物{しなもの}が出回{でまわ}っている

Both these are saying this:

There are similar goods to this on the market

In these cases what you are doing is comparing two items with one another. Finding a common point or similarity and can be interchanged in many situations and still keep the same meaning or desired effect.

However 「ような」has another use as well which separates it from 「類似{るいじ}」.

「ような」 Can be used to describe something.

山{やま}のような津波{つなみ}

A huge tsunami wave

You could also say, "A mountain like tsunami" using the mountain to reference its size.

Or

化{ば}け物{もの}のようなでかい人{ひと}

A huge beast of a person.

These examples don't show similarities so to speak as in comparing two items, more so they are describing something by using an image of another object or feature.

Answer 4

I explain grammatically the difference between them. ような is an verbal auxiliary which indicate metaphor. 類似 is a noun which means similarity and 類似する is a verb of it.

同じような is attributive form of na-adjevtive "同じだ" + ような, it means similar. I think their meaning is same but 類似 isn't colloquial and 同じような is more common than　類似する.