Should we ask questions like "what's the difference between A and B"? I personally think we shouldn't ask such questions, at least try to avoid asking them too early. We Chinese students spend a lot of time on English in high school. One thing in particular seems very odd and frankly useless when I look back: learn the differences between all those words pairs. We love those things. We used to compare and contrast 5 words at a time. 10% of the time, you get a very distinct contrast, things like "receive and accept" or "tall and high". 90% of the time I think the teacher is just overstretching. We memorize all the differences and rules, but when you start talking or writing, do you really remember to use them? hardly. I'm not saying that we shouldn't learn them at all. Here's what I'm proposing: step 1: learn 2 words separately step 2: use 2 words separately step 3: compare those 2 words only when you've become at least very familiar with one of them, or better when you have been using both of them for a while. Also I think when we ask questions about contrast and comparision, it's much better that we give real example sentences and ask which one fit and why？ until then, the question we should be asking is: could I have some more examples of how this word is being used, and how that word is being used rather than what's the difference. What you think?