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ENGLISH EXPRESSIONS

 

You Get The Picture

Definition:

"You get the picture."

=

"You understand me, so I do not need to give more examples."

Application:

People usually use this expression to indicate that they have

finished trying to explain something.

Example:

Teacher:  "Thank you for meeting with me."

Mother:   "And thank you for all of the support

                        you are providing to the students!"

Teacher:  "Your daughter is going to be a junior

                        next year, so it is time to start planning for college."

Mother:   "She has good grades, right?"

Teacher:  "Yes, she is a wonderful student."

Student:   "Thank you!"

Teacher:  "The college application process is more than just good grades."

Mother:   "What else is there?"

Teacher:  "Colleges want to look at each applicant as a whole, not just grades.

                        For example, they want to know about extracurricular activities,

                        special skills and talents, personality, background... You get the picture."

Student:   "Sounds like I have a lot to do to get ready!"

Teacher:  "I'm going to show you some sample applications to practice on. 

                        Take these home, complete them and we can talk more next week."

Mother:   "Thank you for all of your help!"

Notes:

1. Literature Reference: Author Ernest Finney uses this expression in a 2013 short story for The Sewanee Review ("The Wrecker") to describe a mafia: "A couple of years back the Petrovs ran supreme in the tow-truck business on 99 from Stockton to Redding. They were from somewhere in the former Soviet Union, and there must have been at least 120 in the extended family; there was even a seventy-eight-year-old grandmother who got indicted. You get the picture."  

2. Media Reference #1: Journalist Brian X. Chen uses this expression in a January 8th, 2020 article for The New York Times ("What You Need to Know About 5G in 2020") to describe a new technology: "In the simplest terms, 5G is a new cellular standard. Phone carriers have jumped to a new wireless standard roughly every decade. About 10 years ago, 4G, the fourth-generation network, arrived with significantly faster speeds and stronger reliability than 3G. About a decade before that, 3G arrived and was much faster and more robust than 2G. You get the picture." (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/technology/personaltech/5g-mobile-network.html

3. Media Reference #2: Journalist Stacey Vanek Smith uses this expression in a June 11th, 2019 NPR piece ("Your Questions: Meatless Meat And GDP") to describe economics: "So we should do a quick definition of terms here. Now, goods are physical products that companies make and then sell to us. These are things you can touch: cars, furniture, smartphones, food, houses, medicines, rubber duckies... bottles of shampoo. You get the picture. Services are everything else, not just routine things like haircuts and dry cleaning, but also things like banking, law, teaching, medical services."  (https://www.npr.org/transcripts/731865313) (At 2minutes and 12 seconds into the broadcast.) 

4. Media Reference #3: Bob Odenkirk's character of "Saul Goodman" uses this idiom in season 3, episode 4 of the television series 

Breaking Bad ("Green Light") to describe a plan: "Oh, and spread the word. I'm building a class-action, flight 515. Victims' families would be great, but I'll take anyone on the ground who suffered emotionally. Anxiety, sleeplessness. You get the picture." (At 4 minutes and 42 seconds into the episode. Originally aired April 11th, 2010.) 

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