In regard to&In relation to. and some grammar questions.

What's the difference between
[In regard to something] and [in relation to something]??

In the dictionary it says the regard has several different meanings.

It says it can mean "to look at someone" or "to think of highly".
Do native people actually use the word 'regard' to mean those things?


I have an additional question as well ( sorry for bothering you! :] )

1. "There are some words I find hard to pronounce."
2. "There are some words which I find hard to pronounce."
3. "There are some words that I find hard to pronounce."
4. "I find it hard to pronounce some words."
5. "I find some words hard to pronounce."


I think the fifth one makes much more sense than other ones.
Do they all make sense? Would anyone please correct grammatical mistakes?

P.s : What's the diffrence between "Grammatical mistakes" and "Grammar mistakes"??

Is anyone out there can help me please? :(
No reply makes me cry.

I don't hear "in relation to" very often. It sounds rather formal to me. If I google for "in relation to", it seems to be used mostly in the titles of academic papers and similar essays. In that case, it usually indicates that a relationship is being talked about: "Blogs in relation to communities" could be rephrased as "The relationship between blogs and communities". I think it can also be used as a synonym for "in regards to" or, as I would usually prefer to word it, "regarding".

<< It says it can mean "to look at someone" or "to think of highly".
Do native people actually use the word 'regard' to mean those things? >>

Sort of. You can't say something like "I regard you" to mean "I think highly of you", and it wouldn't sound right to say "He regarded the door" to mean "He looked the door".

But you could say, for instance, "You are highly regarded", which means "People think highly of you" or "You have a very good reputation". This could also be phrased as "People regard you highly", which is uncommon but certainly comprehensible.

Or you can say "He regarded her with amazement", which more or less means "He looked at her in amazement". I think that sense of "regard" is always used with the word "with".

As for your other question: All of those sentences make equal sense to me except for #4. I wouldn't use #2 myself, because I prefer to use "that" in a sentence like this, but it isn't really wrong. There's this grammar "rule" in American English that you should use "which" when you need a comma before it, and "that" otherwise, but many people ignore it and use "which" instead of "that" sometimes. It seems that British English might not have this rule. This article has some more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_relative_clauses#That_and_which

#4 is slightly different in meaning, I think. In the other sentences, "some words" must refer to a particular group of words. This sentence is more ambiguous: it might mean you have difficullty saying any words at all. The listener will know what you mean, but for that reason it will still sound a little "off" (although it's still something that a native speaker could say). It would sound better with "certain words" rather than "some words", which has no ambiguity.

#5 is the most concise sentence and a bit grammatically simpler, so it might be the "best" sentence on those grounds.

- Kef