Let us suppose something happened first to John and then to me. Is it grammatically correct to say:
It happened the same to me as John.
And if it is not, how would express this meaning, then?
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4 Answers
The same happened to me as happened to John.
The same happened to me as to John.
The same thing happened to me as it did to John.
answered Jul 20, 2015 at 10:24
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Or another (I think): "The same as happened to John, happened to me"– AvonCommented Jul 20, 2015 at 10:29
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2Note: the original phrasing is grammatically wrong, but you will hear that construction in speech from time to time, simply because we do not always speak grammatically perfect at all times. Commented Jul 20, 2015 at 16:16
It would need to be:
It happened the same to me as to John.
You need to repeat the "to". In order to make it easier to read though, I would add another couple of words:
It happened the same to me as it did to John.
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Why does it need to be this way? That is, what makes the asker's original sentence grammatically incorrect?– talrnuCommented Jul 20, 2015 at 16:53
No, it's not grammatically correct. To express that, you'd say "what happened to John also happened to me" or simply "what happened to John happened to me ..."
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1Because it is parsed is "[It happened] [the same] [to me] as [to John]", not "[It happened] [the same] to [me as John]." Note the difference between "as" and "and" - both of the following are correct: "[It happened] [the same] to [me and John]" and "It happened the same [to me] and [to John]". The phrase "me as John" could mean something like "me pretending to be John" or "me acting the part of John in a play or a film" but that doesn't make sense in your original sentence. Commented Jul 20, 2015 at 23:58
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@alephzero - great explanation, do you mind if I edit that into my answer?– AndyTCommented Jul 21, 2015 at 8:06
I would say: The same thing that happened to John happened to me, too.