"exact same" and "same exact"

Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary
exact same or US same exact
— used as a more forceful way to say “same”
▪ We grow the exact same vegetables in our garden every year. ▪ They showed up at the party in the same exact outfits.

Does "exact same" sound natural to AmE speakers? Does "same exact" sound natural to BrE speakers?

NOT A TEACHER...

I have never heard of such phrases, but I have heard of "exactly the same."

If I were the person who wrote these sentences, I would rather use "identicle."

Both examples sound OK to me.

kiwi man said:

NOT A TEACHER...

I have never heard of such phrases, but I have heard of "exactly the same."

If I were the person who wrote these sentences, I would rather use "identicle."

Click to expand...

And I would rather use 'identical' ;-)

b

PS Spelling tip: words ending '-cle' often apply to small things - like a cuticle or a follicle or a cubicle. But by no means all such words do; and sometimes a not necessarily small thing like a muscle is named after a little metaphorical thing (musculus - a little mouse). Still, if you're wondering whether an ending should be '-cle' or '-cal', it's worth thinking how big it is. ;-)

PPS A more robust rule (fewer exceptions) is that words ending '-cle' are often nouns (for a similar reason - the Latin diminutive suffix -ulus: things that can take diminutive suffixes are often nouns. (Latin isn't everything, of course, but with this ending it often is!)

b