Hello, everybody. How’s it going?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre mais duas expressões super comuns, que tem a ver com aquela sensação de reconhecer alguém ou alguma coisa.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. How have you been? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

Today we’re talking about a couple of expressions that are really useful and you’re gonna hear them all the time on TV or real life conversations. The first one is He looks familiar, or It looks familiar, They look familiar and so on. You see someone and you think you know them, but you can’t really pinpoint where you know them from. He or she looks familiar. Or you see someone’s handwriting, for example, and you ask your friend “This handwriting looks familiar. Is it Fred’s?” and your friend says “No, it’s mine”. So that’s why it looked familiar.

Has anyone that you had just met ever looked at you and said “Hey, you look familiar”? This happens to me all the time. Someone that I’ve just met says “You look familiar”. And here’s something else that people I’ve just met are always telling me: “You look like my friend Gabriela.” “You look like my aunt Maria”. “You look like someone I know”. So maybe that’s why so many people think I look familiar when they first meet me: they think I look like their friend, their cousin, their aunt…

What about when someone’s telling you a story? Let’s say they’re describing someone to you. Your friend says “C’mon, don’t you know Sally? She’s tall, green eyes, red hair…”. You think you know who your friend is talking about, but you’re not sure. Do you say “Oh, she looks familiar”? No! You’re not seeing this person. Your friend is talking about her. So you say “She sounds familiar”. Another example: your brother is telling you about a book he read and he’s saying how much he enjoyed the book, and then he says “I think you recommended this book. Wasn’t it you?” And you’re not sure. The story sounds familiar, but you can’t remember if it’s because you saw a movie the other day with a similar plot, or if you really read that book and just can’t remember, so you say “Well, it sounds familiar but I’m not sure”. When the feeling of familiarity comes through voice or sounds, that is, when someone’s talking to you about something, or when you hear something, well… That’s because it sounds familiar.

And here’s another great expression, really really common and somewhat related to “looks familiar” and “sounds familiar”. This time your friend is telling you about someone he met… let’s say it’s a girl and her name is Jennifer. He’s telling you about Jennifer and he’s pretty sure you and Jennifer have met before. He’s describing her to you and you just cannot remember having met someone named Jennifer with those characteristics. You’re trying, you’re going as far back as high-school, and… nothing. Your friend insists that you and Jennifer know each other. You finally tell him “Hmm, it doesn’t ring a bell” That means simply that the name Jennifer, combined with the description of her your friend just gave you, doesn’ make you think of anyone in particular that you met in the past. You don’t remember her, you don’t know anyone like her named Jennifer. It doesn’t ring a bell.

Here’s one more example: you’re at work and you bump into your coworker Ted in the hal...