Can we say
You are reminiscent of your father
in order to refer to someone`s either psychical or characteristic resemblance of another person in the sense of to remind?
or this sentence is more correct
You are reminiscent of the way your father behave.
I don't think "reminiscent" fit since it is very linked to memory and mental representation. It is coming from reminiscence:
An act of remembering long-past experiences, often fondly.
A mental image thus remembered.
You may talk about "copy", "twin" or just say he behaves similarly if you want a strong image.
You act like a copy of your father
If you prefer something more common, you can say :
When you {act|smile} like this, you look like your father !
your smile reminiscent of my grandfather or I should stick to ` your smile remind me of my grandfather`
– Mrt
May 19 '15 at 8:51
For some reason,
sounds much less natural than
Perhaps this is because the first is in passive tense, which makes it quite vague as to who might be doing the reminiscing.
We normally say that "Something or someone is reminiscent of Y". We do not say "You are reminiscent of Y". Why not?
To say that something or someone is reminiscent of Y is to say that the thing or the person would remind anyone and everyone of Y, which is not the same as saying "It reminds me of Y* or "She reminds me of Y" or "You remind me of Y".
The thing or person in question has characteristics so similar to Y that anyone would be reminded of Y. I (the speaker) am a person, so I am reminded of Y, true, but so would you (my conversation partner or reader) be reminded, and so would the person-on-the-street be reminded.
It is the impersonal construction together with the direct address ("you") which makes the following sound odd:
You are reminiscent of your father.
You remind a person of your father. Since you, too, are a person, you would remind yourself of your father.
