I've encountered a problem :)

[Tamara]

Hi

This site is actually a nest of patterns… I observe with smile that after some time of using it the vast majority of us, regular 'students', started to use quite similar language
and 'forum’s patterns'.

One of them is 'I came across ... ' – and you can see how often it occurs in 'introductions' for questions being asked by regular members.

But it doesn’t matter.

My true question is: can I say "I came across (some) problems" ?
How does it sound?

(My usual way is "encountered problems", but 'come across' and 'encounter' are quite close in meaning, aren’t they? )
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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

Hi Tamara

My personal feeling for "come across" tells me I wouldn't use it quite so directly with the word "problem". But, that same feeling tells me I might "come across something that presents a problem".

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tamara]

So you feeling says that in this case they are not synonyms
(And [you feel that] come across requires a bit more 'material' things to encounter than encounter does )

Thank you, Amy.
_________________
It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

Hi Tamara

"Encounter a problem" sounds far more typical to me and therefore my feeling whispered in my ear that it's a better word partnership.

"Encounter" and "come across" are synonymous. And if you google "come across a problem" you will get over 60,000 results. (bnc returned only one result) What I gave you was my personal reaction to that particular collocation.

Interestingly, the majority of results on the first two Google pages seem to have come from "Techies". I wonder if I should read anything into that.

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tamara]

Hi Amy

Can I ask you one more question?

Do you normally use Perfect forms with to come across?
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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

Hi Tamara

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're getting at.

I'd have no problem using a perfect form if the context calls for a perfect form. I don't think I can estimate how often I use "come across" in which tense, though.

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Tamara]

Thank you, Amy.

(I directly meant 'I had/have come across...' and 'I never had/have come across'.
No any hidden reefs in the question )
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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

Hi Tamara

Word order: had/have never come across

Obviously, present perfect would be more often used than past perfect by any native speaker.

Amy
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Amy
.
ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English