How to say the difference between two things

Question

How would one say "The difference between [object A] and [object B] is..." in Russian?

For instance, I might want to ask "Do you know the difference between chinos and jeans?". A quick Google translate gives "разница между".

But I thought that "между" was only used when describing where objects were situated spatially.

Is this even a natural way to speak in Russian? Or would it depend on the situation?

Разница между - a difference in amount of money, in values, in both countable and non-countable. Отличие между - a difference recognized visually or in quality, in something what clearly distinguishes two things in comparison. — magnump0, Jul 15, 2020 at 18:45

CocoPop · Accepted Answer · 2023-11-29 14:22:08Z

5

"Разница между" you googled, as in:

Ты [вот]/[хоть] знаешь, в чем разница между джинсами и чинос?

Is completely correct and definitely a way to go. Apart from that, one can just say:

Ты знаешь, чем отличаются джинсы от чинос?

or even (slightly ungrammatical but de-facto existing):

Ты знаешь, чем отличаются джинсы и чинос?

CocoPop

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answered Jul 8, 2020 at 17:30

shabunc♦

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Good answer although "[вот]/[хоть]" doesn't add much value. Best to get rid of it.
– Sergey Slepov
Jul 8, 2020 at 17:38
@SergeySlepov I would get rid of them too, although I think that they add plenty of value. IMO they are not relevant to the questions as asked, and on their own are a separate topic that would not fit into this particular answer even cursory. My guess that shabunc added them, because they felt that without either of them the sentence sounds less colloquial than they wanted.
– Andrew Savinykh
Jul 9, 2020 at 4:50
@SergeySlepov I left it only in first sentence. My goals was to inform OP how to make the phrase sound more colloquial, so Andrew guessed right )
– shabunc ♦
Jul 9, 2020 at 12:48
1

For completeness, I would add "какая разница" (to use instead of "в чем разница").
– Alexander
Jul 9, 2020 at 17:06

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