maverick88  +  82171 Fri, 18 Mar 05 03:39 PM Could you please show me an example of use of 'same' without 'to' preceding it? maverick88 Joined on Mon, Nov 22 2004 Israel Regular Member 695 An English learner

	pieanne  +  82174 Fri, 18 Mar 05 03:40 PM Maybe you mean "the"? pieanne Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005 South of France ...But I'm Belgian! Veteran Member 7,517 I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

	pieanne  +  82177 Fri, 18 Mar 05 03:46 PM Here, "same" is an adverb: "you get treated fairly, same as any other student in this course!" (I found it in a book!) I don't think you can use "same" with e.g. "a", because it always refers to a specific, defined word, situation, etc..., so you'll need the defining article. But you can use "similar": "a similar situation" sounds good to me... pieanne Articles, Verbs, Adverbs

	maverick88  +  82188 Fri, 18 Mar 05 04:12 PM Yeah I meant 'the'...lol My dictionary says it can function as an adj. too; Do you have an idea for this? maverick88

	pieanne  +  82190 Fri, 18 Mar 05 04:15 PM Yes, it's mostly used as an adjective, with "the" before... This is the same story I've bought the same T-shirt as you etc, etc... pieanne

	maverick88  +  82197 Fri, 18 Mar 05 05:00 PM Ahh here is another question that bothers me: 1) I've bought the same T-shirt as you 2) I've bought the same T-shirt as you 3) I bought the same T-shirt as you did Which ones are possible? maverick88

	pieanne  +  82201 Fri, 18 Mar 05 05:20 PM To me, they both work, considering 1) and 2) are identical. 3) needs a specification of time in the past, or specification of place. I prefer 1)... pieanne

	maverick88  +  82218 Fri, 18 Mar 05 08:01 PM 1) I've bought the same T-shirt as you 2) I've bought the same T-shirt as your 3) I bought the same T-shirt as you did Now please look at 2 again. Is that OK? And why can't (3) be just like this? What's the problem in it? Thanks maverick88

	khoff  +  82226 Fri, 18 Mar 05 09:57 PM 1) sounds okay to me. 2) is not right. You could say "I've bought the same T-shirt as yours," but I think it would be better to say "I've bought a t-shirt just like yours." I guess (3) is okay -- however, for some reason I can't identify, I would prefer "I bought the same T-shirt that you did." "I bought" and "I've bought" work equally well in any of these. khoff Joined on Sun, Mar 6 2005 Senior Member 3,264 Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert)