Somewhat related to: Is "to fight with" ambiguous?
For some reason prepositions are presenting me problems lately.
To struggle with and to struggle against basically have identical definitions, meaning to fight with/against, respectively.
Is there any distinction in meaning when one is trying to say, "I experienced something negative and there was a sense of conflict between me and the entity"?
For example, is there a distinction in meaning between:
In the past I have struggled with entitlement and greed.
AND
In the past I have struggled against entitlement and greed.
If there is no distinction, is one preferable and/or more popular than the other? Thanks.
Best Answer
I see an important distinction between those two sentences. To me the use of "with" implies a more personal struggle. If you say
You're saying that you personally have been entitled and greedy, and you are trying to not be. Whereas, if you say
You are saying that you are fighting against other people's entitlement and greed.
However, I'm not sure that these distinctions are universally recognized. There are definitely examples where the meanings are clearly different, however. Take
vs.
These sentences have opposite meanings. "Struggled with" can mean both "struggled to have" and "struggled to not have".