In this mini episode, you will learn the strange expressions “to come across as” and “to come off as.”
Episode 266 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the strange expressions “to come across as” and “to come off as.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, everyone! This is Mohadeseh, from Iran. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 266 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you about two useful, but kind of strange, idioms. The first one is “to come across as.” To come across as. That’s come: c-o-m-e, across: a-c-r-o-s-s, as: a-s. To come across as.
We use this idiom as part of a larger sentence or a larger expression: “to come across as something.” What does it mean to come across as something? To come across as something means to appear a certain way, or to seem a certain way, or to seem to be a certain kind of person or thing.
I think this is a great example of an idiom, because if you did not know that meaning—if I had not just told you what it means to come across as something—I don’t think there is any way you could guess the meaning. There is no way you could figure out that “to come across as something” means “to appear as something” or “to appear to be something” or “to appear to be some way.”
Here are some examples of situations where you might see the expression “come across as”:
“Sometimes, my friend comes across as a rude person, but really he’s just shy.” Sometimes, my friend comes across as a rude person, but really he’s just shy.
In this example, you can see the meaning pretty easily. “Sometimes, my friend comes across as a rude person.” In other words, sometimes my friend appears to be a rude person. Or sometimes my friend seems like a rude person.
Here’s another example:
“I don’t want to come across as boring, but do you think you could turn your music down a little bit?” I don’t want to come across as boring, but do you think you could turn your music down a little bit?
Here, you can see “come across as” used with an adjective. I don’t want to come across as boring. In the first example, “come across as” worked with a noun phrase. Sometimes, my friend comes across as a rude person. “Comes across as” can work with a noun phrase, like a rude person, and it can work with an adjective, like boring.
And it means “to appear to be a certain way” or “to appear like a certain kind of person.”
I told you that I was going to talk about two idioms like this. The second one is “to come off as.” To come off as.
Instead of “to come across as,” this is “to come off as.” And this idiom works the same way as “to come across as.” If you come off as something, that means you appear to be something, or you seem like something.
And that is “come across as something” and “come off as something,” two useful idioms that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 266 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Mohadeseh recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.