The same with as

Posted by pakguru on October 10th, 2017 | 0 comments | collocation, compare contrast, Indo English, sama dengan, vocabulary

I experience the same problems with you.

 This is direct translation from Bahasa Indonesia (sama dengan). It’s not incorrect but I’m fairly certain it’s not what you mean!

Same as

In English when you want to say that things are the same, the collocation is usually same as:

• I experience the same problems as you.

In this case you experience problem X, problem Y and problem Z, and I also experience problems X, Y and Z. We both experience the same problems, and we are sharing our problems with each other, as friends.

Same with

Same with communicates quite a different meaning:

• I experience the same problems with you.

In this case I experience problems with somebody else – for example someone lies to me and never helps me – and I experience the same problems with you – you also lie to me and never help me!
Very often this is expressed using ‘it‘:

• That person always lies to me and never helps me, and it’s the same with you.

Here are some examples.
Most of the time you mean same as, so think carefully next time you write same with!