“I’m really glad you two really hit it off.” What does this spoken English phrase mean?
Simona returned home after a great day out, and called her best friend to tell her all about it.
“I had such a wonderful time with Pete. He took me to a lovely sushi restaurant in South Melbourne, then we had fun all afternoon at the beach. We totally hit it off!”
So it looks like Simona enjoyed her date with Pete.
‘To hit it off with someone’ simply means that you get on really well with that person, especially the first time you meet or during the beginning of your relationship.
It can be used to talk about a romantic relationship, but also friendships and business relationships.
In short, ‘we hit it off’ means you have a good relationship with this person.
A Few More Examples:
“I was a bit nervous before I met her parents, but we really hit it off.”
“We hit it off on our first date.”
“You and Garry seemed to really hit it off.”
“I don’t know what happened. We went out, really hit it off, but he didn’t call me again.”
Fixed Conversational Phrases
We hit it off straightaway = right from the start
We hit it off from the word go = straightaway
We hit it off rightaway = straightaway
We hit it off beautifully
We hit it off great | so well | well | pretty well
We hit it off with each other
Did you guys hit it off?
Did you two hit it off?
Did you hit it off with Jana?
Usually In The Past Tense
Because it refers to the first time or to when you first got to know someone, often ‘hit it off’ is used in the past.
However, if you are at a party and see two people getting on very well, you can certainly say:
“Glad to see you two are hitting it off!”
But What If You Don’t Hit It Off?
If you say the wrong thing and you don’t have a good start, you can say:
“We got off on the wrong foot.”
Gimme More
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“What are you up to later?”
I really like your recent articles.
Thanks, Martin! Btw I’ll be putting up ‘downloads’ again soon
Hi David,
You learn something new every day!
“…from the word go” was a new idiom for me, I knew “… from the get go” but not this one – never heard it before!
Thanks!
Robby
Hi Robby
Nice to see you again! And “you learn something new every day” is in itself a great spoken phrase.
I’d love to know more of these kinds of expressions in Czech, to be honest.
David
Hi David,
I have to admit – so practical conversational phrases.
I know this phrasal verb from movie …Now I know how I can use.
Thanks for your job!
Martina
Hi Martina
Great you could pop in. Yeah, movies are great for this, as are TV shows like ‘Friends’, full of colourful spoken English.
Best wishes
David
Nice phrase.
By the way, once my “movies site” is up and running (actually, it’s up on the web but it’s still work in progress), you’ll be able to learn lots of these expressions in Spanish.
Hi Francisco
Well I’m now actively looking for a teacher in Prague. My own mission is to do about 10 hours of Czech, and also have 2-3 hours a week in French and Spanish. A little ambitious if I end up with a full teaching schedule, but not impossible.
Once your new site is up, let me know and I can add it to the sidebar..
David