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I encountered the sentence

Ease by which something may be reached

in this site. I have heard of and read the expression 'ease with which' many times. However 'ease by which' sounds strange to my ears. Google search shows that this is not an uncommon usage despite the ngrams results. What I want to know is the difference between the two (if there is any). Thanks in advance.

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caveat: I have no evidence to back this up, other than my own experience of being a "mature" native speaker and an IELTS 9 scorer.

I think "ease by" is an older form that "ease with". That's why you hear the "ease with" more commonly. I've noticed use of English changing in my own lifetime and I now don't hear phrases that I used to hear all the time. "I should like to" changing to "I would like to" etc.

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