Broadly speaking, these two words have the same meanings and can be used interchangeably in most settings.
一般來(lái)說(shuō)，這兩個(gè)詞含義相同，在大多數(shù)情況下可以互換使用。
For example
他是我的哥哥。
He is my elder brother. ?
He is my older brother. ?
她是兩個(gè)孩子中較大的一個(gè)。
She is the elder of the two. ?
She is the older of the two. ?
In cases like those above, elder is simply a more formal version of the word older, and when comparing two persons, elder has no implication of advanced age, just more advanced than its comparison. So, the elder brother in the first example isn t necessarily old in the sense of the later years of his life; he is just older than his comparison.
在以上的例子中，elder只是單詞older的更正式的版本。需要注意的是，當(dāng)比較兩個(gè)人的時(shí)候，elder并沒(méi)有高齡的含義，只是比它的比較對(duì)象更年長(zhǎng)而已。所以，第一個(gè)例子中的哥哥并不一定是老年人，他只是比他的比較對(duì)象年長(zhǎng)。
雖然這兩個(gè)詞可以用于表示相同的意思，
但在某些情況下，
根據(jù)句子的上下文，
你只能使用其中一個(gè)詞。
For example
He is an elder member of the Supreme Court.
他是最高法院的資深法官。
The elder officer was honored by his younger counterparts.
那位年長(zhǎng)的軍官受到年輕軍官的尊敬。
Elder表示較年長(zhǎng)時(shí)，它含有對(duì)一個(gè)人的地位或成就尊重的情感。而使用older則沒(méi)有這層含義。
The two words elder and eldest are used only when referring to people. They are not used when writing about animals or inanimate objects, such as clothing, furniture, etc.
elder和eldest只能用來(lái)指人。當(dāng)描述動(dòng)物或無(wú)生命的物體，如衣服、家具等時(shí)，不能用elder。
If the main point of your sentence is simply to showcase the fact of advanced age, then older is usually a better word choice.
如果這句話的主要目的只是為了顯示年歲長(zhǎng)這個(gè)事實(shí)，那么“older”這個(gè)詞通常是更好的選擇。
For example
The public opinion poll was a survey of older Americans.
這項(xiàng)民意調(diào)查是針對(duì)美國(guó)老年人的調(diào)查。
Older voters tend to show up at the polls more so than younger voters.
年長(zhǎng)的選民比年輕的選民更傾向于參加投票。
Older can be used to refer to people, animals, objects, etc. There are no restrictions when using older to make comparisons.
Older可以用來(lái)指人、動(dòng)物、物品等。使用older進(jìn)行比較時(shí)沒(méi)有限制。
older還有一種使用方式是不能與elder替換的
For example
Steve has an elder brother. (Correct)?
John is the elder of the two. (Correct)?
John is elder than Steve. (Wrong)?
而older在這些形式中都是可以使用的
Steve has an older brother. (Correct)?
John is the older of the two. (Correct)?
John is older than Steve. (Correct)?
總結(jié)，
因?yàn)檫@兩個(gè)詞大部分場(chǎng)合都是可以互相替換的，
所以你只需要記住他們每個(gè)詞的限制即可
Elder只能用于人，
比older多了一份尊敬、敬重的感情
Older在絕大部分情境中都可以使用，可以用于人和物
與than連用時(shí)，只能是older than
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