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I'm pretty new to Japanese and I have a question.

So I know this is supposed to be something like "he differs from his former
self" but I can't really make sense of what とは is supposed to mean in this
particular situation:

> 彼は昔の彼とは違う
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2013-08-09T13:31:15.433
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2016-02-07T12:50:50.600
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words meaning
What does the とは mean in this phrase?
This is just a case of `は` acting as emphasis. The `と` is used with `違う` to
say that something is different than something else

> AはBと違う → A is different than/from B

Adding the `は` is placing the focus on the relationship (`彼` and `昔の彼`), not
the analysis of the relationship (`違う`).

>   * 彼は昔の彼と違う → He is different than his former self (neutral statement)
>   * 彼は昔の彼とは違う → As for him and his former self, they differ
>

Fundamentally, they mean the same thing. The difference is the focus. Don't
know if I'm explaining that well. Take a look at this related question. It
does a good job explaining in-depth how adding `は` to another particle affects
the meaning.

[What is the difference between “に” and
“には”?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/1096/78)
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2013-08-09T15:41:40.323
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