Seeing some example sentences of each phrase on my dictionary, I felt "end up with" was used for a kind of negative result and "result in" was more general.
Is that correct?
Here are some of the examples I saw 🙂
- The game result in a draw.
- A constant effort will result in success.
- After years of overwork, he ended up with an incurable disease.
- to end up with a repair bill of 200 dollars.
Best Answer
It's more about formality and establishing a direct cause-and-effect link than specific outcomes. Here's another non-negative example :
"Resulted in" is formal and defines a direct relationship. "Ended up with" is informal, and could suggest that there may have been other factors involved. It's also more ambiguous, as there doesn't have to be a known cause for the effect - it just describes the outcome (her experience of dating idiots might have helped her avoid other idiots, but didn't necessarily lead her to the man of her dreams).
[Apologies for using a gendered fairy tale trope - it seemed to illustrate the point.]
The first example in the question doesn't read quite right : "The game resulted in a draw" or "the game result was a draw" would be better, but you could also say "the game ended up as a draw".
The second example is correct use. The third and fourth are also correct, but could be rewritten :
In the fourth example, you'd also be establishing what had caused the result. If you want to establish a direct cause, "resulted in" is more precise. If the outcome was more relevant than why it had happened, "ended up" could be the better phrase to use.
This is particularly true where a more emotive point is being made - "ended up with" conveys a sense of finality that wouldn't be made by the word "resulted". In that respect "resulted" can be said to represent a subsequent event, while "ended up" represents a conclusion. Whether this is positive or negative will depend on what happened.