Can I use ほど in a comparative context, similarly to how I'd use the English word 'like?' (And if not...what can I use?)

Question

Background: A few months back, I started making the transition from studying sentence constructions to studying grammar. While I try to avoid generating 'Japanese translations of my English ideas,' I still find that I use the way I speak English as a starting point for constructing a Japanese sentence that doesn't quite fit anything I've yet heard (or said).

So, with that in mind...

Let's say, for the sake of example, that I'm hanging out with a couple friends at a pet store in Japan. (Apologies in advance for everything about this scenario...in particular if it sounds like a screenplay written by a five year old.) ^.^;

One friend states:

「猫が好きよ。」

The other friend turns to me and says:

「あなたは？」

I then start thinking of a way to express the idea that, in English, I might say as: "Like our friend here, I am also fond of cats."

The problem that arises is that I don't know of a word, be it particle or not, that conveys the 'comparative' nature of the first piece, "Like our friend here..."

So, improvising a bit, I say:

「友達ほど、私も好き。」

My limited exposure to ほど has come in the form of constructions about "He has as much bread as she does" and the like. Still, the 'as much as' interpretation of ほど seems like it might fit. (Maybe. ^.^;)

I should also point out that I'm specifically trying to make a comparison between speaker (that is, myself) and a third-party, as opposed to speaker and listener (where I'd imagine 「私も」 would be all the comparison I'd need).

So then, my (multi-part but hopefully rhetorically homogeneous) question is, after using ほど in this context, will the native speakers hear an idea analogous to the English-language statement that I mentioned above? In other words, does ほど work at all in this context? If not, is there another word or particle that would work? (Note that I came across ぐらい as well while I was looking into this, and it seems like a possible contender...but I'm not at all acquainted with that word yet.)

And if not...is the "Like our friend..." phrase even something that would appear in Japanese? (By the way, the 'our' in that phrase is expendable. I only expected the 友達 from that phrase to survive translation.) Or is this a case of my trying to shoehorn English communication into the Japanese language?

Answer 1

I agree that ほど sounds out of place in

友達ほど、私も好きだ。

but somehow the negative statement

友達ほどは好きじゃないけど、まぁ、嫌いでもないよ。

does sound possible. I guess that ほど is a technical term, which does fit when you assess how much you don't like cats, but sounds too impersonal, when you say how much you do like cats.

There is also

友達みたいに好きだ。

which fits your informal context well.

The sentence

友達と同じように、私も好きだ。

has two meanings. One is

Like your friend, I, too, like cats.

The other is

I like cats the way I like a friend.

You can partially resolve this by saying

友達のように、私も好きだ。

which makes it less ambiguous. のように is the more formal version of みたいに and both translate to

Cats are like friends to me. or
I like cats the way I like friends.

Answer 2

Using ほど in this case just sounds weird to me. I guess you could use と同じように.

例: 友達と同じように、私も猫が好きです。 Like our friend, I ,too,like cats.

4年前と同じように. Like four years ago.

母は私や私の兄弟と同じ様に日系ブラジル人で、ブラジルの国籍しか持っていません。 My mother is a Japanese Brazilian, and like my brothers and I, has only Brazilian citizenship.

Examples taken from alc.co.jp

Answer 3

As you mentioned, ほど roughly translates to "as much as" or to the level of". So it can be used to compare you to a friend, but is used more commonly in the negative sense in order to be humble and modest.

For example:

A: わぁ、日本語が上手ですよ。 Wow, you're really good at Japanese.

B: スミスさんほど上手じゃないんだけど。But I'm not as good as Smith is./I'm not at Smith's level.

In your situation,　同じで ("same as/just like") would fit. 「A + と ＋ 同じで、B ＋ も」

友達と同じで私も好きです。Same as/Just like my friend, I like cats.

Since the friend was in the situation and previously, just spoken, it's best to use his/her name. Otherwise it sounds like you are referring to a 3rd party friend that the listener does not know.