"very you"?

[HighPriest]

We can say "It was the very man who had helped us before" and even "It was very you" (meaning that something captured or showed the very essence of your personality), right?
Now, I have my doubts about the sentence "It was very you who has chosen to do that".
What do you think about it?

 

[emsr2d2]

We can say "It was the very man who had helped us before" and even "It was very you" (meaning that something captured or showed the very essence of your personality), right?
Now, I have my doubts about the sentence "It was very you who has chosen to do that".
What do you think about it?

When we say "It's very you", it's usually when someone has said, done or worn something that suits them very well or which reflects their personality very well. The "you" is used to replace a phrase like "suitable for you".

Do you like my dress?
Yes, it's very you!

Last night, I said "Amazing" at least 20 times.
Well, I'm not surprised. That's very you, after all!

With the sentence you gave, it could be reworded "It's very you, choosing to do that!"

 

[HighPriest]

Yes, I have no problem with that usage.
Would you say that "very" is wrong in the sentence "It was very you who has chosen to do it" if it is supposed to mean simple "It was you who chose to do it"?

 

[BobK]

Yes, I have no problem with that usage.
Would you say that "very" is wrong in the sentence "It was very you who has chosen to do it" if it is supposed to mean simple "It was you who chose to do it"?

Yes - it's wrong. Instead, you could emphasize the 'you' by saying 'You were the one who was chosen to do it' or (rather more formal) 'It was indeed you who...'. Or, colloquially, 'It had to be you... ['that got the cushy job' - for example]'.

But 'very' does work in the third person: 'It was the very [same] man I had seen earlier'. You can say either 'very man' (perhaps rather old-fashioned), or 'very same'; if you just said 'same' you could go on to say 'I'd seen earlier', but to my ear it would be more likely to have some extra syntactical 'underpinning' - 'it was the same man as the one I'd seen earlier', for example. Some people - and this really does sound archaic to me - use the word 'selfsame'.

b

 

[euncu]

When we say "It's very you", it's usually when someone has said, done or worn something that suits them very well or which reflects their personality very well. The "you" is used to replace a phrase like "suitable for you".

Do you like my dress?
Yes, it's very you!

Last night, I said "Amazing" at least 20 times.
Well, I'm not surprised. That's very you, after all!

With the sentence you gave, it could be reworded "It's very you, choosing to do that!"

So, would it be true then, if I say "very you" is a short form of "very typical of you" ?

 

[HighPriest]

Thanks, BobK! I think I can spot two more mistakes in that sentence.
1. Wrong tense: was....has chosen
2. It was you who has (you - > have).

 

[BobK]

:up: When I said '"very" does work in the third person' I was perhaps over-complicating - I should have said '"very" works sometimes', and left it to context. At the risk of meta-over-complicating (;-)) I could invent a 'pseudo-third-person': '[You're] the very person [I was looking for].'

b

 

[emsr2d2]

So, would it be true then, if I say "very you" is a short form of "very typical of you" ?

Yes, that's pretty much what it means. Either "very typical of you" or "it suits you a lot".

 

[MASM]

It's like the so-called "Friends' so", because of the TV series. Am I right?

"This is so Monica"

 

[emsr2d2]

It's like the so-called "Friends' so", because of the TV series. Am I right?

"This is so Monica"

Yes, if someone does something that is typical of/very suitable for themselves or someone else, then you can say

"That's SO Simon!"
"That's very Simon!"
"That's SO you!"

 

[BobK]

It's like the so-called "Friends' so", because of the TV series. Am I right?

"This is so Monica"

If people call it that, I'm sure that's what they mean. But I've no idea why they should name it after any TV program when the usage dates from well before the invention of TV itself.

b

 

[MASM]

If people call it that, I'm sure that's what they mean. But I've no idea why they should name it after any TV program when the usage dates from well before the invention of TV itself.

b

I don't know.. I just have heard it like that many times. Although, thank you for your always helpful comments:-D.