Como digo em inglês: Parece que eu conheço…

By Ana | Podcast Inglês Online

Apr 11
Como digo em inglês Parece que eu conheço…

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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 hallway. Ted says “Hey, I just talked to Michael right now, and he said you have that sales report from last month. It’s in a red folder”. And you say “Sales report… in a red folder. Doesn’t ring a bell, but let’s look in my office”. That means you can’t remember having any sales report with you, in a red folder. It doesn’t ring a bell.

So tells us about the last time you wanted someone to remember something and you kept trying to help them remember it, and they kept saying “Hmm, doesn’t ring a bell”. Talk to you next time!

 

Key expressions

  • looks familiar
  • sounds familiar
  • doesn’t ring a bell

 

Glossary

you can’t pinpoint = você não consegue saber exatamente

you’re going as far back as high-school= você está tentando se lembrar de um ponto lá no passado, dos tempos de escola

somewhat related = tem um pouco a ver

Ana
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jucimara 29/04/2012

ANA, OBRIGADA PELA AJUDA, ESTOU ESTUDANDO INGLES E SEUS PODCASTS TEM ME AJUDADO. NA PROXIMA VEZ TENTAREI ENVIAR A MENSAGEM EM INGLÊS.

HELIO EDUARDO 20/04/2012

SORRY TO SAY, BUT I THINK YOUR CLOCK IS AT THE OLD DST. I POSTED MY COMMENT AT 19:46 AND IT APPEARED 20:46. AM I RIGHT? HUGS AND CONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR INGLESONLINE.

HELIO EDUARDO 20/04/2012

IT’S NICE TO HEAR YOU. IT’S A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO THOSE WHO WANT TO PRACTICE THEIR CONVERSATION ‘CAUSE IT GIVE US SUNDRY OF NEW WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS TO USE DAY-BY-DAY. KEEP ON GOING THIS WAY AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. GOD MAY BLESS YOUR EFFORT ON IT. HUGS.

Daniele 19/04/2012

Hi Ana Luiza!
Seu site é incrível! Fiquei sabendo por um post do Denilso de Lima que acompanho a algum tempo. Estudo inglês por conta própria a alguns meses e tenho uma longa caminhada a trilhar… esse site veio como um presente!
Simply awesome!!!!!! Congrats for your job!

And thanks a lot for share it with us!
Take care

Jeff 17/04/2012

Olá Ana! Adorei esse podcast.

Só uma pergunta, digamos que estou acompanhando seus podcasts, fico uma semana ouvindo este “Parece que eu conheço…” e quero ouvir “That’s a no-no!” novamente depois de 1 mês ouvindo outros, seria inútil pelo motivo de ouvir novamente o podcast “antigo”?

Obrigado!!!

To aproveitando mt o curso, abraço.

    Ana 17/04/2012

    Claro que não, Jeff! O que faço e recomendo fazer na série “COmo Falar Inglês” (e o que os alunos do curso devem fazer também) é **acumular** os arquivos no player, e ouvir todo dia.

Denis D'Urbano 16/04/2012

the problem is when a person ring a bell but you don’t remember were, rsrs!!!

Thank you and congratulations, good podcast.

Paulo Henrique 16/04/2012

Hi Ana,

I’m using your podcasts to develop my listening skills and it’s realy working. Thanks for theses wonderful tips. Bye.

Fernando. 16/04/2012

Gostei, very useful..hey Ana, o k vc acha de um forum no site? Would it work? Aprecio muito seu site de ingles, parabéns..

clari m cossettin 13/04/2012

Estou acompanhando suas aulas e acho-as ótimas. Obrigada!
Abraços

Frank 12/04/2012

Oi Ana,

Fui seu aluno no curso básico e agora estou frequentemente praticando seus podcasts.
O motivo deste comentário é o seguinte: alguns podcasts como este eu consigo entender fluentemente sem recorrer a nenhum dicionário e isso me deixa empolgado. Mas tem alguns que começo a ouvir ou ler e algumas coisa me parece grego. Acho que o motivo é que vc tenta alcançar os diferentes níveis de estudantes da língua. Todavia, seria possível uma indicação ou ordenação dos podcasts em níveis de dificuldade?
Obrigado por tudo. Estou muito feliz com os resultados obtidos com o seu material.

Abraço!

Frank

Alexandre 12/04/2012

Bom dia Ana Luiza, acompanho seu site diariamente, agradeço pelas contribuições tenho aprendido bastante
com vc. Eu só queria mais uma gentileza sua, se vc pudesse destacar em negrito as palavras do glossário, pq geralmente eu o leio e as vezes volto pra identificar no texto e fico procurando como um louco. Muito obrigado mais
uma vez por tudo.

Marcelo Carvalho 11/04/2012

Hi Ana,
This is the first time I’m here commenting about a podcast. I’ve been listening to podcasts for a long time in this site and I wanna thank you for these helpful podcasts, also say that you have a beautiful voice. When it comes to english I prefer speaking and listening than grammar. Your podcasts helped me a lot, because I noticed now I am able to understand you almost 100%, my comprehension improved a lot since the first podcast I have heard.

Just a question about the word ‘wanted’. Do you pronounce the letter t?I can’t hear the t sound, so if you can answer the question, I thank you a lot.

So, thank you very much again and keep teaching english.
Bye.

    Ana 12/04/2012

    Hi Marcelo,

    Happy to hear the podcasts have been useful!

    I usually do not pronounce the T in wanted and some people do. Both are acceptable..

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