Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[zeppy]

what's the meaning of the underlines . thank you !
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Phoebe: (sings) I can't believe what I'm hearing here...

Monica: What? I-I said you had a-

Phoebe: (sings) What I said you had...

Monica: (to Phoebe) Would you stop?

Phoebe: Oh, was I doing it again?

All: Yes!

Monica: I said that you had a nice butt, it's just not a great butt.

Joey: Oh, you wouldn't know a great butt if it came up and bit ya.

Ross: There's an image.

[bud]

butt - one of many polite slang words for 'buttocks' (some others: rear, behind, fanny, rump, tush)

you wouldn't know a [something] if it came up and bit ya - You are so ignorant about [something] that it could be close enough to bite you, and you still wouldn't recognize what it is. (The point is that it could get that close to you without you recognizing it. The "biting' is not the point, but is the metaphor that conveys the idea of the closeness.)... As you probably know, 'ya' is how we often pronounce 'you' in casual speech.

There's an image. - It's an exclamation so it should have had an exclamation point rather than a period. I know it isn't your punctuation... He's saying that the thought (or mental image) of a butt coming up and biting Monica is remarkable in some way: exciting/funny/disgusting/interesting/whatever.

[zeppy]

As a substitution . Can I use " How vivid description it is " to replace " There 's an image ! " ?


thanks for your always help !

[bud]

Excellent, Zeppy! Yes you could, with this small correction:

How vivid a description it is!