Pass off as
We have a phrasal verb for you today—and I’m not going to lie: it’s a hard one. The phrasal verb is “to pass something off as.” The definition of this phrasal verb is to make people believe that one thing or one person is actually something or someone else. You make people believe that one thing is actually something else. It’s not exactly a lie, but if you pass one thing off as something else—there’s definitely some deception involved.
In the movie “Yesterday,” the main character suffers an accident. He wakes up and finds out that The Beatles never existed. He’s the only one in the world who knows who The Beatles were. Think about it—one of the biggest bands of all time, and they never existed. So the young man starts playing Beatles songs, telling people that they were his own songs. He passed the Beatles songs off as his own. He tried to make people believe they were his, when in fact, they were originally from the Fab Four.
I’m writing this in New York, and if you go to Chinatown, down by Canal Street, you can find people passing off cheap merchandise as original designer products. Handbags, jeans, glasses, accessories, things like that. What am I talking about? You can find that anywhere in New York. But it’s especially bad by Canal Street. Street vendors are passing off cheap shoes as Louis Vuitton. They’re passing off cheap glasses as Gucci. They’re passing off cheap handbags as Prada. They’re not Louis Vuitton, not Gucci, not Prada: but the sellers are passing their cheap goods off as these expensive brands. The sellers are trying to make you believe their goods are something that they are not.
In both these examples, there has been an element of cheating. In “Yesterday,” the character tells people that the Beatles songs were his own—they weren’t. And on Canal Street, people say their goods are designer—they’re not.
Here’s another way to use “pass off as.” You can pass yourself off as something that you are not. Have you ever been with someone at dinner and that person tries to pass him- or herself off as an expert at choosing wine? But you know they have no clue, they’re just pretending? That drives me nuts! Just admit you only know the basics like the rest of us!
In the telenovela I’m watching, one of the characters, Jose Luis, goes to work at a big estate. He passes himself off as simply a farm laborer, nothing more. In fact, he used to be in the navy and he’s the ex-boyfriend of beautiful Montserrat, the wife of the owner of the estate. He passes himself off as a simple farm worker, but he’s really so much more. He passes himself off as one thing, but he’s really something else.
Quote of the week
Time for a quote of the week. I usually try one of two things—either I try to pick a quote about the main topic, or I try to pick one quote that’s famous in history, food for thought, if you will. Today’s is just plain funny. It’s really famous, from one of the great orators of the English language, Mike Tyson. That’s right, the famous boxer Mike Tyson. Here’s the quote, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
It’s a famous quote—I’ve heard it dozens of times. But I saw it somewhere this week, I think in an article about the Yankees. They lost a playoff series to the Houston Astros. The Yankees were prepared; they had a good team; they had a chance against Houston. But they ran into some unexpected problems—injuries, some people playing badly at the exact wrong time—and their plan fell apart. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Related: Episode 3: Astros win the 2017 World Series
The wisdom behind the quote is that, you can have a great plan, but your plan will be tested. Things will change. You have to be able to adapt to the change, to be able to adapt when things start to go wrong. So next time you hear someone say they have a plan, and it’s perfect, and nothing can possibly go wrong, you can say, “Well, as the great Mike Tyson once said, ‘Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’”
That’s all for today. Thanks for joining us this Monday. We’ll be back with a brand new episode for you on Thursday, like always.
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