Is there any difference with or without и on "тот же ~, как..." structure?

Question

In the following sentence:

У неё такая же кофточка, как у тебя.

I thought that usually, these types of sentences also use и, such as:

У неё такая же кофточка, как и у тебя.

I wonder if there is any difference between the two sentences. Are they exactly the same, or is there any difference, even slightly, between the two?

There's no actually any difference, maybe the one with и is a bit more colloquial, although the difference is perhaps so minute that it can hardly be noticed. — Yellow Sky, Aug 22, 2021 at 4:08
In a one-sentence answer containing the words ‘maybe’, ‘perhaps’, and ‘hardly’ at the same time? What I wrote is just what I feel as a native speaker, but I would rather write what I know in my answers. I'm sure there are people here who know, it's just the end-summer trance now, soon they'll be here. — Yellow Sky, Aug 23, 2021 at 17:36

Danylo Mysak · Accepted Answer · 2021-08-30 20:15:36Z

The two constructions are almost identical in meaning, but the one with "и" has a slight connotation of the statement being anticipated. For example:

— Как склоняется слово «такой»?
— Это слово склоняется так же, как прилагательные.

(new information)

or:

— Как склоняется слово «такой»?
— Это местоимение-прилагательное; склоняется оно так же, как и прилагательные.

(expected conclusion)

Similarly, compare:

— Вот это совпадение, посмотри! У неё такая же кофточка, как у тебя.

— Не выдумывай, вы обе хорошо выглядите! У неё такая же кофточка, как и у тебя.

But this nuance in meaning is very minor indeed, so in practice you would almost always be using the two constructions interchangeably.

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