Hello and welcome back to Daily English!
Today’s phrasal verb was requested by Harooki from Tokyo. The phrasal verb is “come across as.” Once again — come across as.
Let’s see if you can guess what it means from these clues: You’re giving a presentation. You’ve practiced so much that you speak quickly and confidently — but someone later says, “You kind of came across as arrogant.”
You text your friend, “Whatever. Do what you want.” They get upset and say, “Wow, that really came across as rude.”
Or imagine someone speaks slowly and smiles a lot — and you think, “He comes across as really kind.”
So what does “come across as” mean? To come across as means to seem or appear in a certain way to others, even if that’s not how you really feel or what you meant.
Examples: “She came across as really confident in the interview.”
“I didn’t mean to come across as cold — I was just tired.”
“The email came across as a bit passive-aggressive.”
Have you ever come across as something you didn’t mean to — like rude, serious, or overly confident? What happened, and how did the other person react?