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Cambridge David
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Hello wonderful English students. Join me each day for an interesting question about the English language, British culture, or just life in general. Please feel free to add your comments below, or to contact me directly on italki. If you have a question you'd like answered, just let me know. In the meantime, good luck with today's question 😊
'Did you know that my brother is the spitting image of Elon Musk?' What does the phrase 'spitting image' mean?
My brother has a picture of Elon Musk
My brother behaves like Elon Musk
My brother doesn't like Elon Musk
My brother looks like Elon Musk
239명 참여함
2023년 11월 22일 오전 7:39
답변 · 4
You're absolutely right Leonid; it's a wonderful anecdote that uses the phrase perfectly. Did you know that Rowan Atkinson is actually an incredibly wealthy man who has a Masters' degree from Oxford University. Wouldn't it have been amazing to have had him as a classmate.
2026년 3월 18일 오후 7:22
I've heard this phrase on YouTube. There is a short video in which a famous English actor Rowan Atkinson tells a story about a man who half recognises the actor and asks him 'Has anyone ever told you that you're the absolute spitting image of that Mr. Bean?'. Atkinson replies 'Well, actually, I'm the actor who plays Mr. Bean'. After that the man says 'I bet you wish you were'.
2026년 3월 18일 오후 6:08
Thanks Enrico. It's really interesting that it's also used in Italian, as it's such a weird phrase. Apparently it comes from an ancient idea that a child was formed from the spit of their parents, and that this explained the facial resemblance. It's a great phrase in IELTS whenever a candidate needs to talk about a person they know.
2023년 11월 22일
In Italian we also say: "immagine sputata"; I think it comes from dubbing films; the Italians dubber often dubbing English lines in a literal translation.
2023년 11월 22일
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