Same, similar, identical

Same means that two or more things are exactly like one another. We can use same as an adjective before a noun or as a pronoun. When we use same to compare people or things, we must use it with the:

• I noticed that Richard and I were both wearing the same jacket.
• Not: … were both wearing same jacket.
• These two colours are not the same. This one is slightly lighter than that one.
• Not: … are not same.

The same as

warning

The same is followed by as. It is not followed by that or than:

• Does ‘start’ mean the same as ‘begin’ in English?
• Not: … the same that … or … the same than …
• My new car is the same model as my old one.
• Not: … the same model that … or … the same model than …

The same + noun + clause

When we use the same with a noun, we can follow it by a clause with that, and less commonly with who or which. We can often leave out that, who or which:

• She’s the same person (that) I spoke to when I phoned their office.
• How was the course? Was it the same teacher (who) you had last time?

We can emphasise same with very:

• This is the very same hotel we stayed at when we were here twenty years ago!

Do the same

We can use do the same instead of repeating a clause:

• She bought her ticket for the folk festival online, and we did the same. (We also bought our tickets online.)

Similar and identical

We use similar if two or more things are not entirely the same, or identical if two or more things are exactly the same. We use the patterns similar to and identical to, a similar + noun or a similar + one and an identical + noun or an identical + one. We don’t say a same:

• This colour is similar to that one.
• Frank had a problem connecting his printer. We had a similar problem, so it must be the software.
• Not: … a same problem …
• She first showed us a beautiful 16th-century vase. Then she showed us an identical one, but the second one was a copy.
• Not: … a same one …
• Questions 1 and 2 were identical.