To have a good nose (for something)

Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, I’m Feifei…

… and hello, I’m Rob.

Errr, what is that smell?

Smell? I can’t smell anything.

There is definitely a terrible smell, like mouldy cheese. What’s in that bag, Rob?

Oh, this bag! You’re right, it is cheese. Beautiful, delicious Stilton cheese in fact. Would you like some?

No! So why have you got a bag of mouldy cheese?

Well, I stopped at the cheese shop on the way to the office and saw this cheese was half price - and you probably know, I have a good nose for a bargain.

I don’t think so, Rob - judging by this cheese, you have a bad nose - it smells awful!

No, Feifei. When you have a nose - or even a good nose - for something, it’s not about your sense of smell. It describes someone who is naturally good at finding and recognising something - in my case, finding a bargain!

I’m not so sure about that, Rob! Well, I have a good nose for finding examples - so here they are…

We need to sell more newspapers, so we need to find a reporter with a good nose for a story.

I have a good nose for learning languages and was fluent in Spanish in just a year!

My mum’s got a nose for bargains and booked us all flights to Italy for just fifty pounds each.

This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re finding out about the phrase ‘to have a good nose (for something)’. Rob claims to have one, but I’m not so sure. So how much did you pay for this cheese, Rob?

Only 20 pounds - it was half price!

That’s because it’s old - look, it’s going green! Sorry, Rob - this cannot stay in the studio. It stinks - out it goes.

That’s not very nice.

Hold on, I can still smell something bad. It’s your socks! Look, you haven’t got your shoes on. Urghhh!

Wow, Feifei, you really have got a good nose - a good nose for bad smells!

Your bad smells, Rob!

Time to go. Bye.

Bye.