Hey there, everyone.
How's it going? My name's Andrew, and you're listening to Catchword, the QLIP series where we teach you useful English expressions that will help you sound more natural and confident when you speak English.
Each episode focuses on a theme, and today's theme is resemblance.
So we'll teach you two expressions that you can use when people or things look almost exactly the same.
My American co -host, Cassie, will be joining me in just a moment, and together we'll teach you about these two idioms that are perfect for describing strong similarities.
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Okay, let's get started with today's episode in earnest, everyone.
I'll invite my co -host Cassie in now and we'll get started.
Here we go. Enjoy. Hey, Cassie, how's it going?
Hey, Andrew, I am doing really well.
Thank you. How about you?
I'm doing great, Cassie, and we have another wonderful lesson for our listeners here today.
Guys, we are going to introduce and teach you all about two idiomatic expressions that we can use when we're talking about things or people that have a very strong resemblance.
And in fact, that word right there, resemblance, is a big word in English.
And I kind of feel that some people maybe from a romance language background can understand what that word means just by hearing it once, Cassie.
but maybe, you know, some of our listeners from Korea or Japan or other parts of the world maybe might not understand it.
So could you give us a definition?
What does that word mean?
Resemblance. Resemblance means something looks alike.
It looks like something else.
So if two things resemble each other, it means that they look very, very similar.
So guys, we're going to talk about two different idiomatic expressions in English that we can use to talk about things that resemble each other or people who resemble each other.
And the first expression that we'll teach you about is dead ringer, or this is a noun.
So we usually use it with a right that vowel, a dead ringer and ringer is spelt R I N G E R dead ringer.
So Cassie, this is like Like one of those expressions that I think would be almost impossible to guess the meaning just by looking at it, a dead ringer.
I think even native speakers wouldn't know what it means just by seeing it in a sentence without extra context.
So we should explain what it means.
What does it mean? A dead ringer?
A dead ringer is someone or something that looks almost identical to another other person or thing and it's cool this phrase actually originated in early 19th century american horse racing and it referred to a horse that was substituted for another horse under a false name or pedigree so i'm guessing it was a scam that people could do they could take their award -winning horse and then register that award -winning horse under an unknown name.
Because if you register a horse that nobody knows, nobody's going to bet on it, right?
So you could get a high return on your earnings if you can hide a successful horse under an alias.
Wow. I had no idea about that origin.
That's really clever that they would swap out the horses.
So they'd get a slow horse and a fast horse that look the same and then swap them at the last moment and then bet on the quote unquote slow horse that's actually the fast horse and then win a bunch of money.
So clever. Wow, humans can find a way to cheat at everything.
It's so funny. But Cassie, was the horse's name a dead ringer or something?
Like what is the connection between the horse and the actual phrase, the actual expression?
Dead in this case doesn't mean lifeless.
it means exact or precisely.
And ringer came from the criminal slang, which means ringing the changes, which meant substituting a cheap item for a valuable one.
Okay. Wow. So that's really interesting because it seems like we don't really use either those expressions on their own in English anymore, but this idiom still exists, a dead ringer.
So then, guys, to talk about its more modern meaning, a dead ringer is someone or something that looks almost identical to another person or another thing.
So it can talk about the resemblance, the physical look of somebody, but also some other characteristics as well, like, Cassie, maybe voices.
You could have two people who sound really similar.
Their voices sound similar.
you could say they're dead ringers.
Or maybe behavior or mannerism or gestures, the way that people move through the world.
Maybe style, maybe if we wore similar style of clothes, you could say, oh, that person's style is a dead ringer for this person's style, right?
So when two things look very, very similar, or act very similar, behave very similar, then they are dead ringers.
And that's a good point.
They have to be pretty much exactly like the other thing.
So even if, you know, people think, oh, well, they're almost the same, you wouldn't use this phrase.
It has to be so uncanny when you just can't believe how similar something is.
You would use the phrase dead ringer.
And that's another great expression that you just threw in there, Cassie, uncanny.
Uncanny means you don't even know what's real anymore.
It's like, is this reality?
Is this a dream? Are you telling me that those two people really aren't related?
There's no way like that would be uncanny.
Yeah, that would be uncanny.
That feeling like you don't know what's true and what's fake anymore.
Yeah, exactly. And guys, I think another point that we should emphasize here is that we wouldn't use this expression per se to talk about family members.
So Cassie, I mean, I could technically say that you're a dead ringer for your sister, for example, if you and one of your sisters looked really, really similar.
But the next expression that we'll introduce after this one is a spitting image.
And I think that's a more appropriate expression to use to talk about family members who resemble or look alike.
But here we're talking more about unrelated people or could be things too, right?
Like a counterfeit of something, a handbag, a counterfeit handbag, looking like the genuine handbag, you could say.
They're dead ringers.
So just as long as there's no like family connection, then I think it's totally fine to use this expression to talk about two things that resemble each other.
to a great extent. Okay, now that we've introduced the phrase dead ringer, let's take a listen to some example conversations that use this phrase.
Whoa, look over there.
That guy sitting by the window looks exactly like our CFO. Oh, whoa, you're right.
Well, that's crazy.
He's a dead ringer for him.
For a second, I thought it really was him.
But there's no way he's on a business trip to Europe right now.
Yeah, but I bet if he walked into the office after lunch, everyone would do a double take.
OK, let's break this example conversation down and talk about it.
So, Cassie, we heard two co -workers and I think they were like maybe at a coffee shop after their lunch break, something like that.
and they were just hanging out in the coffee shop, enjoying the few minutes that they have before they have to go back to the office.
And they saw some other customer in the coffee shop who looked exactly like their company's CFO. And a CFO means the Chief Financial Officer.
So a big wig in the company, right?
C -level is a very high executive level in the corporate structure of a company.
So very high level employee.
And that customer, that random guy at the coffee shop looked like the CFO. They were very, very similar.
They were dead ringers.
So this is a perfect example of how to use this expression when two people who are unrelated look almost exactly the same.
You could say they're dead ringers.
And again, the situation is where these two might might say, wow, it's uncanny how similar they are.
So anytime you use the phrase dead ringer, you're always going to have this feeling of surprise and excitement because you're just so amazed by how close two people who are not related look.
Yeah, absolutely. Cassie, there's two extra things that I wanted to talk about in this example that I think are just good for English learners to know.
So guys, take note of these two things.
The first is that we use dead ringer often with the preposition for.
So we heard one of the co -workers in that example say that that customer at the coffee shop is a dead ringer for the CFO. So when we're trying to say that someone looks like someone else or acts like someone else, we use it with that preposition for.
He's a dead ringer for him, for example.
example and then secondly the very last line of the example we heard the expression a double take right if that guy that random guy in the coffee shop who looks like the cfo if he just walked into the office all of the other staff members would do a double take right they'd be like oh our cfo's on a business trip in europe right now but here he is in our office like they'd be very very confused.
So Cassie, what is a double take?
What does it mean to do a double take?
Listeners, if you hear the phrase double take, you immediately imagine it in your brain.
It's like one of those things that just visually pops up automatically.
A double take is when you take a look and then you're confused or surprised by something.
So you immediately take another look.
It's like your head turns once and then it turns again.
You know, when you see something that's really out of the blue or crazy or unexpected, and you just sort of notice it the first time, but your brain is too slow to register that what you saw was actually crazy.
So you just glance ahead of you and you see something wild.
And then maybe a millisecond later, like just a quick moment later, then you realize, whoa, that's really crazy.
And then you turn to look again, that's a double take.
So it's kind of when your eyes and your brain aren't working at the same speed.
Maybe your eyes are faster than your brain is.
And then when your brain catches up, then you look again.
So it means to take a look to get more visual information after glancing once originally.
Okay. So Cassie, let's move on to our second example conversation.
Now, here we go. I was watching YouTube last night and I saw this guy who's a dead ringer for Bruno Mars.
He even sings just like him.
Oh, I think I've seen that guy.
It's nuts how much they look and sound alike.
Yeah, and he even dresses the same and performs at weddings pretending to be the real Bruno Mars.
I bet some people actually believe he's the real deal.
All right, in this example conversation, two people are talking about a Bruno Mars lookalike.
This guy is a dead ringer for Bruno Mars.
He looks just like Bruno Mars.
He dresses just like Bruno Mars.
And he sounds just like Bruno Mars.
I have never seen a Bruno Mars lookalike, Andrew, but I have heard of several people that are dead ringers for Elvis Presley.
It's kind of famous to be an Elvis Presley impersonator.
How about you, Andrew?
Have you ever heard of someone who has been a dead ringer for a celebrity?
britty? Yeah, I saw a Beatles cover band when I was a kid.
And it wasn't the real Beatles, but all of the members of that band, they dressed up to look like the Beatles and they faked the Liverpudlian accents.
And they had the same haircuts.
And they played the Beatles songs the way that the Beatles play them.
So they were impersonators of the Beatles.
And that's what we call this kind of person, someone who copies and mimics someone else is called an impersonator.
And I think that band was pretty good.
I don't want to say they were dead ringers because they didn't sound exactly like the Beatles.
They didn't look exactly like the Beatles, but they were pretty close and it was a fun concert.
All right. So Cassie, with that being said, let's move on to our second key expression for this episode.
And we previewed it just a couple of moments ago.
This expression is spitting image, spitting image.
And again, I think this is like another one of those expressions that if you didn't know the meaning, then you'd have no idea just from trying to guess in context what it means spitting image.
So I'm glad we're going to break it down for everyone here.
And Cassie, I'll let you do the honors.
Could you explain the meaning of spitting image?
image? Spitting image is someone who looks almost exactly like another person and we usually use it for family members.
For example, a grandchild looking like their grandparent or a daughter looking like her mother or something like that.
And Andrew, I actually looked up the origin of this phrase too and it's pretty literal.
It's called a spitting image because somebody said One time, long, long time ago that the son looked like he was just spat out of his father's mouth.
He was just like a miniature version that his dad vomited out and it looked just like a carbon copy of him.
He was a spitting image of his father.
That's really interesting.
I don't know if that's true or not, because I also Googled before we started recording about this expression and I heard something different.
Oh, what did you hear?
yeah this is the case often with these expressions that are really old it's like you never know what's true and what's lore what's fiction about the origins of these expressions but i heard that way back in the day the original expression was spirit and image so if you looked like someone you are the same spirit and same image but then when people were saying that quickly and over the years that spirit and image became spit and image and it kind of like those words blended together so who knows they both sound right yeah they both sound like they could be true to me i i'm not sure and guys if it
helps you to remember the expression by thinking of one of these origin stories then yeah there's no harm in just thinking of how it came to be if it helps you to remember it but But yeah, at the end of the day, okay, spittin' image.
And often, you know, the spelling of spitting is S -P -I -T -T -I -N -G.
But when we say this quickly, I think a lot of English speakers casually will say spittin' image, not spitting image, just because it's easier to pronounce.
Cassie, how do you say it when you're saying it quickly?
He's the spitting image of his father.
I use spitting, but I've definitely heard people use spittin'.
Yeah, spittin' image or spitting image, both are okay.
Okay, so we know the meaning now.
Okay, we know that it means that two family members look exactly alike.
And like you said, Cassie, we could use it maybe if a child looks like one of their parents, or maybe, you know, sometimes you're looking at old family pictures, and you'll be like, Whoa, great grandma is a spitting image for this little cousin or something, right?
Like, from different generations, family members have a strong resemblance.
Okay, so we would use it in that situation.
But again, if two people are unrelated, then we wouldn't really use it in that kind of situation.
A dead ringer, I think fits better.
And yeah, it has to be a very, very strong resemblance, right?
Maybe if only the nose looks similar, or only the hair color looks similar, then we wouldn't say it has to be like a very strong match where two people are looking really, really alike.
Exactly. And it doesn't have to be people that look alike right now.
Like you said, with great grandparents, you could also say that a father when he was younger, like you look at a baby picture of a dad, and you look at his current baby son, you could say, ah, they're spitting images of each other.
Even though now, of course, they don't look anything alike, like one is a grown man, and the other is a baby, but the father's baby picture and his current baby are spitting images of each other.
Very good point. Yeah, absolutely.
All right, Cassie, let's take a listen to some example conversations with this expression spitting image right now.
So I met your sister today when she dropped off your jacket and I swear she's the spitting image of you.
Yeah, we get that all the time.
People even mix us up on the phone because because our voices sound so similar too.
Wow, that must be so confusing.
I bet people think you're twins too.
Yeah, but actually, she's three years older than me.
Still, we basically look like clones.
All right, so in this example, we heard two roommates chatting at home.
And I guess the sister of one of the roommates dropped off a jacket, I guess.
Yeah, the jacket was somewhere else and the sister brought it back to the home.
So these roommates are chatting and the sister and one of the roommates, Cassie, your character, that roommate, they look exactly the same.
They are spitting images of each other.
And this just means that there's a very, very strong resemblance.
So much so that maybe some people think that they're even twins.
And Cassie, I know that you have some sisters.
Are you the spitting image of any of your sisters?
I was going to talk about that.
Yeah, actually, nowadays, I don't think we look as similar.
But when we were both teenagers, we were pretty close in both similar voices and similar appearances.
And we have had people tell us that we look like spitting images of each other.
Not so much anymore, though.
I see. Yeah. Often when you're younger, you look more similar, right?
Then you do once you grow up.
Once life, life takes its toll on you.
yeah as for me and my siblings i think yeah me and my brother don't look very much alike at all my brother is younger than me but he's taller than me and bigger than me and yeah i guess my sister and i look more similar i would have a closer resemblance to my sister i suppose than my brother but we're definitely not spitting images of each other if there was anybody that I was a spitting image of, I guess it would be my dad.
I think I take after my dad the most, but I still wouldn't say that we're spitting images.
He's just the most similar in my family.
Anyways, let's go to our next example conversation.
So we have another one here, guys, for you to listen to.
And we'll take a listen right now.
Look at this old photo of my dad as a kid.
Doesn't he look familiar?
Oh my gosh, you're a spitting image of him.
Same eyes, same smile.
It's almost like looking at a younger version of you.
Yeah, my grandma always says I look exactly like he did at my age.
That's really cool.
I love seeing family resemblances like that.
It's like history repeating itself.
All right, in this example, it's very similar to the first one.
We have a daughter and a picture of her dad as a kid and apparently they were spitting images.
She is a spitting image of him in his younger days.
You know, Andrew, as a little anecdote, I have heard that, I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that oftentimes the first son that you have is a spitting image of his mother And the first daughter that you have is a spitting image of her father.
Now, of course, this is not always the case, but it's crazy how often it occurs.
Huh, that's really interesting.
I am the first son in my family, so I guess that would mean that I should be similar to my mom.
Similar to your mom, but you're not.
Yeah, but like I just said, similar to my dad, I think.
What about you, Cassie?
You have a little son.
Is he similar to you then?
Or I think he's told us before that he's kind of half and half of you and your husband.
Yeah, however, I really thought the Asian genes would pull through much stronger than they do.
He has more of a resemblance to me than I thought he would, which, you know, makes me happy.
I can see a little bit of myself in there.
Yeah, that's really cute.
And that brings us to the end of this Catchword episode.
Today we learned two useful expressions, a dead ringer and spitting image.
Both of these are great for talking about people or things that look strikingly similar.
And now that you know what these expressions mean, try listening for them when you watch shows or movies in English.
And of course, practice using them in your own conversations.
If you'd like a place to keep practicing and to connect with other Q -Lips listeners, then come on over to our Discord server.
It's a great space to chat, to ask questions, and to use the expressions we teach you in each episode.
It's 100 % free to join, and the link to do so is in the description for this episode.
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