Learn English – “Do you like me?” or “Are you like me?”

ambiguitydifferencemeaning

What is the proper use of "do" versus "are" in the phrases:

Do you like me?
Are you like me?

Is there any difference between them?

Best Answer

The misunderstanding is not about "do" versus "are".
Instead, it is caused by the word "like". It can be either verb or adjective, but also may serve an adverb:

  • I like chocolate - here, like is a verb. It answers the question "what to do?" and its meaning is "to enjoy", "to sympathize" or "to prefer".
  • I am a programmer, like my brother - here like is adjective. It answers the question, "how?" and its meaning is "similar to" or "close to".
  • There are lots of birds like ducks and gulls - here like is an adverb. Its meaning is "to give an example".

Not very grammatical but a nice example sentence is:

Like my brother, I like fruits, like apples or bananas.

Here, "like" serves three different roles, and the meaning is:

Similarly to my brother, I enjoy fruits, for example, apples or bananas.

Now, back to the question.

"Do you like me?" means an asker wants to know if you enjoy the friendship of him/her.
"Are you like me?" means an asker wants to know if you are similar to him/her by character or whatever.

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