He looked at me like I was a kid.
He looked at me like he was a kid.
Which of the above sentences would you take to mean the same as this sentence: "He looked at me like a kid." And why?
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Sign up to join this communityYour third sentence is ambiguous. It could mean the same as either of the first two. Why? Because you don't specify who it is who is "like a kid".
Usually this sort of sentence is obvious from context. Like if I said, "The student played the piano like an expert", presumably I mean that the student was like an expert, and not that the piano was like an expert, because inanimate objects can't normally be expert at anything. But if I said, "The student played the piano like a drum", I probably mean that the piano was like a drum, that is, that the student was banging on it like it was a drum. It wouldn't make sense to say that the student was like a drum.
But, "He looked at me like a kid", either "he" or "me" could be "like a kid". Either reading is possible. It might be clear from context. Like if you said, "Bob was 30 years older than me. He looked at me like a kid.", you probably mean that he thought of you as a kid because you were so much younger. ETc.