For a monoid $M$ and a subset $S$ of $M$, define the <i>syntactic congruence</i> $\equiv_S$ of $S$ as the least congruence on $M$ that saturates $S$, i.e. : $$u \equiv_S v \Leftrightarrow (\forall x, y)[xuy \in S \leftrightarrow xvy \in S].$$ Now define the <i>Nerode equivalence</i> as the following right congruence : $$u \sim_S v \Leftrightarrow (\forall x)[ux \in S \leftrightarrow vx \in S].$$ Let $[u]_\equiv$ be the equivalence class of $u$ with respect to $\equiv_S$ and $[u]_\sim$ with respect to $\sim_S$. Now define $i_\equiv (n)$ to be the number of different $[u]_\equiv$ for $u$ of size $n$. Define $i_\sim(n)$ in a similar fashion. Now the question is, how do the two $i$ functions relate ? For instance, a standard theorem says that $i_\sim(n)$ is bounded by a constant whenever $i_\equiv(n)$ is, and reciprocally. Is there any other result in this trend?