english speaking problem (british?)

[moonwish]

Hi,

I don't speak english as a native language so I often run into translation problems...
Now I have two words. Relative and apparent. Could it be they are used to mean the same thing? Could it be americans use reletive while british say apparent ? Or if not, what would apparent dielectric permittability mean? I know what relative dielectric permittability is...

Sorry if it's too complicated to answer. I have no one else to ask

[yemenitegreen]

Re: english speaking problem (british?)

Hi moonwish,

since I'm not a native speaker either, I can relate...

A helpful ressource is the Merriam Wemster online, it does give explanations for all words.

Apparent and relative are not the same,

see

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=apparent&x=0&y=0

and

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus?book=Thesaurus&va=relative&x=0&y=0

HTH (hope that helps)

yemenitegreen

[moonwish]

Re: english speaking problem (british?)

ok, thanks, I'll check there.

too bad they're not the same tho.