MARKERS OF COMPARISON AND CONTRAST 

Comparison between sentences 
  X is  
X and Y are   
X is  very  
quite  
rather  like Y  
similar  
similar to Y in terms of  
with respect to   
with regard to  quality/size/  
expense etc.  
X resembles Y in that they are both large/expensive etc.  
X is  
 
 exactly  
precisely  
just  
virtually  
almost  
nearly the same as Y.   
  
Both X and Y are large/expensive etc.  
X is as large as Y.  
X is no larger than Y.  
X is the same size as Y.  
X is costly to buy and  it is (also) costly to maintain.  

Comparison between sentences  
  X is expensive to buy.  
   
 Similarly,  
Likewise,  
Moreover,  
Furthermore,  
In addition,  it is expensive to maintain/operate etc.  

Contrast within sentences  
  X is unlike Y  
X differs from Y  
X and Y differ  
X is different from Y  
X contrasts with Y with respect to  
with regard to  
in terms of size/expense etc.  
in that X is smaller/more expensive etc.  
X has four Zs,  
   
 whereas  
while  
but  
yet  
although  Y has three.  
  
  
Y is  
X is  
  
considerably  
a great deal  
(very)much  
rather  
somewhat  
a little  
slightly  
only just  
scarcely  smaller than X.  
larger than Y.  
   
   
   
  
  

Contrast between sentences  
  X is expensive to buy.  
  
 However,  
Conversely,  
By/In contrast,  
On the other hand, it is cheap to operate/maintain etc.