Hello everyone,

I'd like to know if the phrasal verb "come off" in the following sentence can be used in sense "look like" , "appear to be" or similar, and if some other phrasal verb can fit its place in the sentence without a change in the meaning :

"In the argument we had he came off as a good guy and I came off as a negative person."

( argument ended up with me appearing to be a negative person and he as a good guy)


Thank you for the help

Your interpretation is spot-on.

A variant of your wording that also uses a phrasal verb is as follows:

"In our argument he came away looking like the good guy and I came away looking like the bad guy."

I suppose it is the good/bad guy rather than a good/bad guy because it is these particular people and their interaction that are being focused on.

Thank you for the answer Erik. It helped.

I wonder if the phrase "get off " is commonly used in other places, in the same way it is here. I don't mean "get off" as in to enjoy something but rather as a "how dare you" or "what makes you think you can say that?".
"Where do you get off calling me a dead-beat dad?"

I've never heard for that meaning of "get off" earlier trolley. I checked dictionaries and "get off" in the sense "how dare you" seems to be used only in the idiomatic phrase "where do you get off" as you used it trolley. Am I right about this?

Yes, I only ever hear it used with a "where do you..." lead-in. It's an odd construction and I can't find any reasonable explanation as to where it came from. It's almost like there is a specific location where it is all right to think or say something. Somehow, I always think of people riding a train when I hear it. There is a similar saying that also seems to hint at a "place". "Don't go there" is used to mean don't do or say or think in a particular way.

Thank you for the explanation trolley.

Here in America, I hear "get off" used in that context all of the time. To my--again, American--ears, it sounds decidedly "east-coasty." Specifically, it puts me in the mind of New Jersey (North Jersey), Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens. E.g., "Where do you get off suggesting that Derek Jetter couldn't, were he so inclined, walk on water over here?"

Would Dante's last post be counted as a garden path sentence?

Sorry, could it...?