What do you identify him with?

People tend to identify Akshay Kumar with hard hitting action and daredevil stunts.

We have been saying time and again that to improve your English speaking skills, you need to keep learning little by little everyday. It’s a gradual process the journey of thousand miles has to be broken into several small steps.

The phrase we talk about in this post is, “To identify with”.

Let’s first begin with some examples:

1. People tend to identify Yash Chopra with exquisite romantic movies shot in Switzerland with unbelievably good looking characters. However, he has delivered some of the best action dramas in Bollywood including Kala Paththar and Deewar.
2. Public at large seems to be unable to identify with Rahul Gandhi owing to his privileged background.

Identify with means to associate yourself (or someone else) with someone or something. When talking of two people, identify with usually means feel a connect or feel that he or she is one of us. Following examples illustrate how, identify with can be used for association between two people.

1. Several people in the late Seventies and Eighties would identify with the angry young man because of rampant frustration with the system.
2. Rags to riches stories are always popular because most of the people identify with a poor hero who struggles and finally becomes rich and famous.

This phrase can also be used to associate ideas or themes or things. Let’s take some such examples:

1. We usually identify light blue with vast sky or ocean. It gives a sense of openness.
2. People tend to identify white Scorpios with tinted glasses with politicians and builders.

It’s a fairly common phrase and you’d come across it in several news reports or magazine articles.

Let’s close with a couple more examples:

1. People identify Thums Up with rough tough, rustic macho men and it has this adventurous appeal to it.
2. People identify good clothes and sober demeanor with power and wealth and tend to give you more respect if you are well dressed.