ENGLISH
REFERENCE

consistent with sth

prep. phr..
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford

prep. phr.. when two things match or agree with each other. You use this to say that a new fact or action fits perfectly with a rule or a previous statement.

prep. phr.. indicating a state of logical agreement, harmony, or compatibility between two or more elements. Often used in formal or academic contexts to show that evidence supports a theory or that an action follows a policy.


SIMPLE

His story is consistent with the facts we found.

CONTEXTUAL

The new company policy is not consistent with the original contract we signed last year.

COMPLEX

The results of the latest clinical trial are entirely consistent with the hypothesis proposed by the research team during the initial phase of the study.

Usage

usually follows a linking verb like 'be' or 'seem' and is followed by a noun or noun phrase.

Teaching tip

point out that this is a common collocation in academic writing; contrast it with 'in line with' which is slightly more idiomatic.

Pitfall

The results are consistent to the theory.The results are consistent with the theory.the adjective 'consistent' always requires the preposition 'with' when connecting to a following object.

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