What's the difference between the following two sentences? I am always confused about them.
"The building is tall."
"The building is high."
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Also How tall/high is the Empire State building? – Weather Vane Mar 30 '22 at 06:39
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It's a very specific context. – Virtuous Legend Mar 30 '22 at 07:30
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1‘High’ and ‘tall’ can mean quite different things; If you’re on top of a building, you’re quite high up, but you’re not suddenly tall. So, ‘tall’ is the size of the object, ‘high’ is the position of the object – Buzzyy Mar 30 '22 at 07:41
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In the context of buildings, they're essentially interchangeable. I'd say there's a difference in focus, in that "tall" is an observation likely to be made from the outside, while "high" is more likely to be heard from the upper floors in relation to the ground—after all, not all parts of the building are equally high, and no individual part is tall.
But both of these are impressions and nowhere close to rules. I can't think of any instance where one choice would be obviously wrong, so try not to overthink it.
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