COPE WITH vs DEAL WITH

COPE WITH vs DEAL WITH

Firstly, to deal with means:

1 - to take action to do something, especially to solve a problem (In these cases it is not possible to use cope with).

Examples:

• Nick's parents had to deal with the mess his friends had made of the living room.

• Record companies haven't yet found a way to deal with Internet piracy.

• Nina's responsible for dealing with customer complaints.

2 - to accept and control a difficult emotional situation so that you can start to live a normal life again despite it (here, cope with can also be used).

Examples:

• He's finding it hard to deal with the death of his goldfish.

• She deals with stress much better than her colleagues.

Cope with

When a person copes with something, it means they deal successfully with a difficult situation (the same as in the second meaning of deal with).

Whereas in the first meaning of deal with we solve the problem or resolve a situation, in using cope with and the second meaning of deal with, we get through or manage a situation despite the problem (the problem still exists).

An important difference in usage is that deal with always takes an object - we have to say deal with *something* -whereas we can use cope without an object.

examples:

• I don't know how he'll cope if he loses his job.

• Our goldfish died last month but we're coping quite well.