~かのように

Japanese
#1

Hey all I came across a grammatical construction that is a bit opaque to me. Would appreciate an intuition pump from the community.

Sentence:

そして自分じぶんがそれを誇ほこりにしていると、まるで植物しょくぶつに水みずを遣やるかのように、さりげなく伝つたえるところも。

Deepl Translation

And the way they casually convey that they take pride in it, as if watering a plant.

Mine

It was also that Grandma took pride in saying it to me so nonchalantly as if simply watering her plants.

Really the part I am confused about is the かのように especially the “か.” Is there a meaning difference in omitting it? Why not just say : 植物しょくぶつに水みずを遣やるのように

Thanks in advanced, also any advice on my translation would be nice I can post more context that helps understand where the sentence comes from if needed.

#2

Think it’s just using this point to form a clause in a sentence

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#3

I might be wrong but my intution says that …遣るかのように… over …遣るように… just emphasizes metaphorical.

In English it’s like 植物に水を遣るように → “as if watering the plants” versus 植物に水を遣るかのように → “as if she were watering the plants.”

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#4

Ah I searched for かのように and that didn’t come up, will definitely read through that.