Mandarin Grammar: expression of "equivalent to"?

I know a forum(English) where many Chinese people are willing to help others to study Chinese http://www.foreignercn.com/bbs/index.php u could make a thread at "question zone"

First, before answering your questions, I have to say that those two sentences you gave are very non-Chinese. shi2li4 实力 means power and strength, more of political or economical senses. Like you are talking about the power of the US, or the strength of Microsoft. When you use that word on people, usually you do that when you are talking about two candidates as a CEO or two warlords or something. Also, gao1 高 is adjective, meaning high or tall. OK, back to your question: yes, your guess is correct. When you use A, you need to use nouns (so, cannot be gao1, which is adjective. Should be gao1du4, height, the noun.), and use adjectives with B. Sentence B is more casual (just like in English, you don't say "the heights of John and Jim are equivalent to each other.") and more used. AND, this is more used in negative way, as mei2you4 na4me gao1 (not as tall as ...). To use it in a positive sentence sounds little "learned from a book". Sentence A is used more in a more formal way, just like the word "equivalent" in English, like when you are talking about two companies fighting for market shares. Also, "xiang1 dang2" can mean "of good match", "comparable". You can say, in Chinese, "John is 3 years older than his wife, their ages xiang1 dang1". =========== As a native speaker, if I want to say Li and Zhang are equally strong/tall, I would say: Li he2 Zhang yi2yang4 zhuang4/gao1. (zhuang4, 壮, strong, muscular) (yi2yang4, 一样, equally, of same, same, noun or adv, adj) Li he2 Zhang yi4ban1 zhuang4/gao1. (yi4ban1, 一般, just like yi2yang4, less used) Li he2 Zhang de gao1du4 yi2yang4. (gao1du4, height. I don't know a noun for the degree of muscular in Chinese.) yi2yang4 can be replaced by cha4bu4duo1, 差不多, not of much difference, if you are not sure they are exactly the same.