1.difference作“差异,区别”解时,指一事物区别于另一事物的不同之处,可指事物之间的本质差别,也可指事物之间的非本质的差别,可充当不可数名词,也可作可数名词。difference还可作“差距,差额”解,指的是事物之间存在的一个差额值,作不可数名词。difference引申还可作“分歧,争执”解,这时常用作复数形式。
2.difference后常接介词between, of短语作定语。

make a/no/some difference
1.对某人〔某事物〕有〔没有,有一些〕作用或影响 have an〔no, some〕 effect (on sb/sth)
The rain didn't make much difference to the game.这场雨对比赛没多大影响。
The sea air has made a difference to her health.海上的空气改善了她的健康状况。
A hot bath makes all the difference in the morning.上午洗个热水澡能让人精神振奋。
2.对某人〔某事〕重要〔不重要〕 be important, unimportant (to sb/sth)
It makes no difference to me what you say: I'm not going.你说的对我来说都无所谓,我不会走。
It won't make much difference whether you go today or tomorrow.你今天去也好,明天去也好,关系不大。
It would have made a lot of difference if you had told me this two days earlier.如果你早两天告诉我这件事,那么情况就会大不相同了。

make a difference between
区别对待 treat differently
She makes no difference between her two sons.她对两个儿子一视同仁。
She makes a difference between her own children and her stepchildren.对自己的孩子和丈夫与前妻所生的孩子,她不是一视同仁。

split the difference
〈非正〉折中成交; 差额各让一半 (when make a bargain) compromise on the price; agree on an amount halfway between
You say 15 pounds and I say 25 pounds, so let's split the difference and call it 20 pounds.你出15英镑而我要25英镑,这样吧,让我们各让一点以20英镑成交。

with a difference
特别的,与众不同的 special; unusual
She's an opera singer with a difference: she can act well!她这个歌剧演唱家与众不同,因为她还擅长表演!

When the artificial flowers are contrasted with natural ones, you can hardly tell the difference.当人造花和自然花对比时,你几乎不能辨出真假。
They agreed to bury their differences.他们同意搁置相互间的分歧。
The two neighbors have now arranged their differences.这两个邻居现已消除了他们之间的不和。
Let us mediate our differences rather than engage in a costly strike.让我们通过调停解决分歧,而不要进行代价高昂的罢工。
By mutual consent, the negotiators kept off political differences, and concentrated on the military issue.经双方同意,谈判代表避开政治上的分歧而集中讨论军事问题。
It's time to set our differences aside and work together for a common purpose.该是我们抛开分歧,为一个共同的目的而协力工作的时候了。
▲～+between n./pron./v-ing
I can't perceive any difference between these coins.我看不出这些硬币的区别。
It's easy to tell the difference between butter and margarine.区别黄油和人造黄油是很容易的。
How can we discern the difference between two books in a dark room?在黑屋子里,我们怎么能看出两本书的不同?
The recent wage increases point up still further the difference between this government and the last.近来工资的增加更进一步显示出本届政府和上届政府的不同。
There are many differences between living in a city and living in the country.住在城市和住在乡下有很多不同之处。
What's the difference in temperature between the day and the night?白天和夜里的温差是多少?
There's not much difference in price between the two computers.这两种计算机的价格之间没有太多的区别。
The House and Senate ironed out the differences between their two tax bills.众议院和参议院解决了他们两个不同的税收提案的分歧。
▲～+of n./pron.
There's an age difference of six years between them.他们之间相差六岁。
We had a difference of opinion over who had won.我们究竟在谁获胜的问题上发生了争执。

difference, distinction
这两个词都可用于感觉到的“差异”,可以互换使用。其区别是:当差异的感知是由于分析和辨别的结果时,通常用distinction; 而当指明差异的状态时,通常用difference。例如:
The first thing you'll have to do is to make a distinction between the primary and the secondary tasks.你们应该做的首要工作是区分主要任务和次要任务。
下面两个短语意思相同:a difference of 20 minutes
20 minutes difference
20分钟的差别

你注意到他们风格上的差异了吗?
［误］  Have you noticed their difference of style?
［正］  Have you noticed their difference in style?
你能讲出这两个形容词的区别吗?
［误］  Can you tell the difference of these two adjectives?
［正］  Can you tell the difference between these two adjectives?
［析］  表示“(两者之间的)差异”用difference between,表示“(在某方面的)差异”用difference in。只有在表示“(有多大的)差距”时,才用difference of。