The nonlinear second order differential equation with deviating argument (1) \((r(t)u'(t))' + p(t) | u(g(t)) |^ \alpha \text{sgn} u(g(t)) = 0\) is compared with the equation \[ (l(t)y'(t))' + z(t) | y(w(t)) |^ \beta \text{sgn} y(w(t)) = 0, \] where \(r,l : [t_ 0, \infty) \to (0, \infty)\) and \(g,w,p,z : [t_ 0, \infty) \to R\) are continuous, \(\alpha \geq \beta > 0\), and \(g(t) \to \infty\) as \(t \to \infty\) and \(w(t) \to \infty\) as \(t \to \infty\). The equations considered can be in canonical or noncanonical forms.