Final answer:
While 'as if' sentences create a hypothetical scenario or intense situation, similes draw a direct comparison between two unlike things using the words 'as' or 'like'. 'As if' invokes an imagined situation, not a straight comparison.
Step-by-step explanation:
'As if' sentences can be similar to similes, in that they both make comparisons, but 'as if' is more often used to convey a hypothetical situation rather than a direct comparison between two unlike things. For instance, the sentence 'she cried as if she was going to go on the moon' suggests a dramatic or intense level of crying, indicating the intensity rather than drawing a similarity between crying and traveling to the moon. In comparison, a simile uses 'as' or 'like' to make a direct comparison, such as 'quiet as a mouse', comparing the quietness of one thing directly to the quietness associated with mice.
Further examples of similes include 'he is as sly as a fox', where direct comparison is made using 'as', and 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' by Wordsworth, where the speaker's loneliness is compared to a cloud using 'as'. However, an 'as if' comparison generally illustrates how someone does something in a way that implies a scenario or feeling, rather than making a direct 'like for like' comparison.
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