Being a native speaker ...

I often hear students and colleagues refer to native speakers of English as the ultimate authority, like, "I heard it from a native speaker" or "A native speaker told me this expression does not exist / is not correct."

But as demonstrated by comments on the post above, opinions of native speakers can vary - significantly so!

I am a native speaker of Russian. Until recently, the only version of the expression in the post above for me was: У него денег, как у дурака фантиков.

But recently I was listening to a podcast and heard: У него денег как у дурака махорки. Did it sound familiar? No. Did it sound native? Yes. Did I understand it? Yes.

And then subscribers offered even more variations of this phrase:
... как у Ротшильда
... как у Абрамовича
... как у короля
... как гуталина у Матроскина
... как у бояра
(And more).

I wouldn't ever use any of these. Yet, I would understand them.

The language native speakers use is defined by many factors: education, age, location, the formality of the situation. There is no universal native speaker.

And then there are exams. Let's say a native speaker IELTS examiner hears an unusual expression from you. What do they think?

Let's go back to Russian. "У него денег, как гуталина у Матроскина" still sounds native to me even though I have never heard it. But "У него денег как у короля" doesn't. Then again - that's just me, one person.

Anyways, being a native speaker is a very complex phenomenon. There are many factors and unknowns. Be careful with these snap judgements: "I heard it from a native speaker" or "A native speaker told me this expression does not exist / is not correct." This might not be the ultimate verdict.

🐸 And the final note: If you were reading carefully, you will have noticed that in some cases I used a comma before как and in some I didn't. Why? Simply because I don't know which is correct. I can google, of course, but I kept the inconsistency to prove a point. Native speakers can make mistakes too - stay tuned for the next post.