Things Native English Speakers Say - British English Podcast

Hello and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast.

The listening resource for intermediate to advanced level English learners.

My name is Anna.

And my name's Nick.

And today we're having a good old chinwag.

I'm a bit sniffly today, Nick.

I've got a little bit of a runny nose, so you'll have to forgive me.

Well, on that note, shall we have a chat about noses?

What we could do, yeah.

Let me just get a tissue.

OK, so I said I had a runny nose.

Can we just explain that?

Because if something is runny, well, if you're running then you're actually

moving on your two legs quite fast.

Yeah, quite fast.

You might be running away.

Yes, but if you're runny...

If your nose is runny, or your eggs could be runny, couldn't they?

Or slime could be runny.

Yeah.

It's a description of the movement style of a substance.

Or a consistency.

Consistency, yeah.

So, if your eggs are runny, then they're very soft.

Your porridge could be a bit runny.

But don't go off the subject, Nick.

Stick to eggs.

So, runny eggs are very loose eggs, almost like a soft egg, a soft-boiled

egg, but a hard-boiled egg would have a hard, firm consistency.

I didn't realise we were deep diving into eggs.

Well, I just thought eggs would be a more polite way of talking

about the consistency of runny.

So, we like a runny egg, don't we?

We like the yolk to be runny.

I cannot abide a hard-boiled egg.

You can't abide a hard-boiled egg.

No, no.

I think, if somebody in a restaurant gave me eggs on toast and the yolk

was not runny, I probably wouldn't send it back because I'm British, but

I would be extremely disappointed.

You'd be angry on the inside.

I'd write them a bad Trustpilot review.

But you'd have a hard-boiled egg in a ramen or in a salad.

So in a salad, definitely because I think having a runny yolk on

salad leaves is a bit weird.

But, I was actually looking at making a ramen yesterday and you're right

that they would normally do it as a hard-boiled egg, but I would still try

and get it on the runnier side of hard.

Right.

Okay.

Mm.

So, if you have a runny nose, then it just means that the mucus in your

nose, which is quite disgusting, is quite loose, and therefore you

have to keep blowing your nose.

So, I do have a little bit of a runny nose.

I fear that I may have a cold coming on.

But, I'm well in myself, so you just have to put up with my constant

sniffles, unfortunately, Nick.

I'll do my best.

You can cope.

I'll try.

You'll manage.

So, thinking about the word nose, it's actually used in quite a

lot of English phrases, isn't it?

The thing that comes to mind straight away is to be nosy.

What does it mean to be nosy?

Well, it's like, your nose is the bit that sticks out the farthest.

On your face.

Yes.

And so if you are very interested in something, you might be getting very

close with your face and you might stick your nose in a bit too far.

So, being nosy is being overly inquisitive, looking into things

that maybe are not your business.

Right.

So it's about curiosity.

It's funny though, because you used the word inquisitive, and curious,

which I think are both beautiful English words and quite positive.

I think it's quite a good thing to be inquisitive and curious, although they

do say that curiosity killed the cat.

But the word nosy doesn't have that positive connotation, does it?

No, it has negative connotations.

It's something you would say if you weren't being very

polite about somebody, I think.

So it's not nice to call someone nosy?

No.

I mean, it's not like a swear word, is it?

No.

And it's not really offensive, but it's not kind.

Well, it's slang, I think.

I think it derives from slang.

So, if you are nosy, then you are quite curious and you're interested

in other people's business.

You're interested in things that are going on with other

people that don't involve you.

So, like, if you are arranging to go and have a day out with your friends, and

I'm not invited for some reason, because you don't like me maybe, and I am asking

you lots of questions and showing lots of interest, too much interest, then

you could say that I was being nosy.

And you might say to me,

"Anna, stop being so nosy."

It's like if you were saying to me, "I'm trying to think about what you've

got me for Christmas or my birthday."

As a present.

Yeah, as a present.

Or, it was under the tree and you were giving it a shake and saying,

"I want to know what it is."

I'd say,

"Stop being so nosy."

Just wait, be patient.

You don't need to know, you'll spoil it by trying to find out.

Yeah.

You're not privy to the information and you don't have

a right to know the information.

Or even if you bought something for somebody and you were being asked,

"How much do you spend on them?"

Again, it's information that is slightly inappropriate to ask for.

Yeah.

Like someone's age.

How old are you?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Never you mind.

Stop being so nosy.

That's another phrase, isn't it?

Never you mind.

That's such an interesting phrase.

Never you mind.

Never you mind.

Mind your own business.

Yep.

All very similar things.

Yeah.

Now...

Keep your nose out.

You could call someone nosy, but an extension of that is...

Oh, a nosy parker.

A nosy parker.

Yeah.

That's a noun, isn't it?

You're a nosy pa...

You're almost giving them a name of somebody that behaves in such a way.

Hey, nosy parker.

Yeah.

He's a nosy parker.

This phrase I've known from being a kid, something we'd like shout at each other,

"Hey, you're a nosy parker."

It's a bit of a junior, kind of juvenile sort of phrase.

But I just did a little Google search, as you do, trying to find

out like the origin of nosy parker.

And it's not completely certain, but one source suggests that it comes from

a very long time ago with a chap called Matthew Parker, who was the Archbishop

of Canterbury, during his time and that he was known for basically being overly

interested in or prying into other people's affairs, other people's business.

Trying to find out if they were being sacrilegious.

Yeah, just trying to find out what people were doing.

So, he was known for being very interested in other people's business and other

people's opinions and lifestyles.

And so because his surname was Parker, he was given the nickname Nosy Parker.

And that was obviously so popular at the time that it continued on as a way to name

anyone who was curious and inquisitive.

It's funny because if you're a religious leader, you often, I

assume he would still be doing it.

You would run something called confession.

So, if you ran a church and you had a congregation who would come and see you.

You sit in these boxes, right?

Sometimes they would be completely private and you'd slide something

across, and sometimes if you wanted, you could be open, and so the priest

could see your face and you would tell them and there was a saying,

so I grew up Catholic and it was,

"Bless me, father, for I have sinned."

And it was something like "I've got these confessions to make."

And then you would tell them, these are all the bad things I did.

And as a child, in a Catholic school, you'd go in and say,

"I didn't eat my breakfast, I ate too many sweets."

And then at the end of it, the priest would say,

"Here are some penance prayers to say.

Go and say 'The Our Father' five times, and that will

relieve you of your sinfulness."

So, it makes me think if this nosy parker, either he was so nosy that the confessions

of everybody wasn't enough, or people would come and tell him stuff, and he'd

be like, I can't believe that's true!

I must go and find out!

And go around, you know, sticking his nose in other people's business.

Yeah, and then you said to stick your nose in.

So, that is another common phrase that we use for nosy people, isn't it?

We say,

"Stop sticking your nose in."

Or,

"You are sticking your nose into that person's business and it doesn't

belong there, so take your nose out."

Just like you were saying earlier, like literally sticking your face into

something to find out more and your nose being the first thing to enter.

So, to stick your nose in or to keep your nose out is the other common phrase.

So, if you're telling someone to stop asking questions, you say,

"Keep your nose out.

It doesn't concern you."

Now, connected to this, if you're going to have a look at a place, maybe you're

going to have a wander around a shop that you haven't been in before or a

town, if you're on a holiday perhaps.

And you're literally just going to have a look around, you've got no other

specific purpose, you're not going to take part in activities or buy anything

necessarily, you're just going to look.

Then you could use the phrase...

To have a nose about.

To have a nose about.

So, Nick, you've got something happening right now, so you go and do that.

I'm going to go and have a nose about in the village.

Oh, I see.

Yeah.

Yeah.

If you went to the supermarket to do some shopping, I could say,

"Anna, can you go and buy the vegetables?

I'm going to have a nose about in the seasonal aisle and see what's there."

Very nice.

And also if you're in a shop and always the shop assistant spots you

and they come over and you're like,

"Oh no, they've seen me."

And they say,

"Hello, can I help you with anything?"

And I would reply,

"I'm just having a nosy."

Yeah.

Or just having a nose about, just doing a bit of window shopping.

Yeah.

Seeing what's around.

Just having a nosy or just having a nose about.

These are very much slang or colloquial sayings that mean I'm just having a look.

I have no intentions.

Okay.

So, one other phrase that comes to mind which involves the word nose

is related to being a bit of a snob.

And it's something that the kitten did to me this morning, that I put

his food down and it's a food that he's had before and he's loved before.

And yet when I put it down on the floor this morning, he turned his nose up at it.

No way.

He did.

I was hurt.

He turned his nose up at it and then he sat down and he looked at me and he went,

"Meow," like he was really disgruntled.

He has high standards.

Very high standards.

So, to turn your nose up at something, can you give us a very clear explanation

of what this means metaphorically?

So, it means that you don't like something.

And in English, I think we often use it in a snobby connotation.

So, if somebody doesn't like something, it can be that they just don't like it, but

to turn your nose up at something often refers to the fact that it might be that

they feel that they're too good for it.

Yeah.

So it's more, it's more of a rejection than just a simple dislike because,

you know, there's many things I don't like, but I don't turn my nose up at it.

For example, I eat your sprouts, even though I don't like sprouts

because I know they're good for me and you do cook them well.

It is a rejection, you're right.

So, it's saying...

Yeah.

I don't want this in a way that's suggesting you're superior.

It almost kind of infers that they would push the bowl away from them.

Yes.

Yeah.

Saying, I don't want this today.

Unacceptable.

Yeah.

Yeah, so to turn your nose up at it, and you can actually imagine

them doing this physically.

So, if someone thinks they're too good for something, they look at it

so their nose points down as they look down towards it, and then they go,

"Huh!

No!"

And they lift their nose high up into the air as they turn their face away.

So, physically they turn their nose up at it, and metaphorically they reject

it by turning their nose up at it.

That kind of leads me on to, when you feel irritated, there's a phrase you can use.

That involves the word nose.

So, you might be talking about gets up my nose?

Yeah, if something gets up my nose.

And that would come from the actual sense of something being stuck up your nose

and it being very unpleasant, right?

Yeah.

So, it's almost a physical, you know, suggestion.

So, something that comes to mind with me is if you get water up your nose.

It's horrible, right?

I don't like that.

Oh, like when you're swimming.

Take your head away, yeah.

And it goes in your sinuses and then you get that kind of pain,

especially if it's chlorinated water.

Yeah, yeah.

Or if somebody who's trying to be very irritating slowly sticks

something, a little stick up your nose just to try and annoy you.

For me, in the summer, it's the bugs.

I always have a bug fly up my nose.

I'm like, what's that?

Yeah, that really gets up my nose.

But we use this metaphorically to suggest that it's a person

or a thing gets up our nose.

It irritates us.

Very irritating.

It's usually people, isn't it, that we use this for.

So, I say,

"I was on the school run this morning, Nick, and I saw the

neighbour from three doors down.

Oh, she really gets up my nose.

Yeah.

She really irritates me."

Or you could say,

"I do like Daniel, but his voice really gets up my nose."

His voice really grates on me.

It's really irritating.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a really interesting phrase, right?

So, there's one final phrase that you mentioned before we started recording,

which is to have a nose for something.

What does this mean?

It means that you have an intuition.

Ahh!

Yeah.

It means that you, and it's almost, there's a, like an innate skill

associated with this, right?

If you say,

"Oh, you know, Anna really has a nose for pronunciation quirks."

Okay.

Then you'd say, there's something that Anna innately understands that other

people, even though they try and learn it, they are just not as good at.

Yeah, so it's like a natural ability to have a nose for something.

A knack.

Yeah, I guess it's like if some people have a very attuned sense of

smell, a very acute sense of smell and they can smell certain things that

other people maybe can't pick up on.

Mm hmm.

I think I do have quite a good sense of smell actually, just talking about that.

You also have a good sense of pronunciation quirks.

Lots of people learn to be musicians, but if somebody was able to just hear

the music and then play it on the piano.

They have an ear for it.

They have an ear for it, right?

But yeah, having an ear for something means that you can really hear

something and you understand it.

Having a nose for something is the same, but it's more about, you know.

Just to be able to sense something in the air.

Yeah.

You can sniff it out.

So, you could say,

"Do you know what, Nick, I think that Gerald and Gina are having an affair."

And you'd be like,

"Don't be so silly.

They hate each other."

I say,

"No, no.

I have a nose for these things.

I can sense it.

There's something going on."

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or if it was a three-person conversation, for example, I would say,

"You're, you're talking rubbish, Anna.

You don't know what you're talking about."

And the third person might be saying,

"Don't you dismiss her, Nick.

She really has a nose for this kind of thing."

Yeah.

You know, it's a way of giving reassurance that there's a there's

something that you're missing that they really understand.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

So, let's just quickly recap for our listeners those phrases.

We started with a runny nose, which actually hasn't been too problematic

during this recording, which is good.

Then we went on to being nosy and being a nosy parker.

And we moved on to the phrases to stick your nose in, where it's not wanted.

And to keep your nose out, which you'll be told if you're being too nosy.

Then we talked about having a look around, in which case we'd use

having a nose about having a nosey.

And then we talked about turning your nose up at something, rejecting

it in your superior, snooty manner.

Then we talked about something or someone getting up your nose, irritating you,

and finally to have a nose for something.

And I'm just being a little bit nosy, Nick.

What are you going to be doing as soon as we finish this podcast recording?

I'm going to go and have a nose about in the kitchen and see if

there's some snacks available.

Oh, it really gets up my nose when you just go and have a nibble in the

kitchen and you don't bring any to me.

Well, I do, but you often turn your nose up at it.

That's true.

Well done.

All right.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Nick.

You're welcome.

Thank you for having me.

And thank you to our listeners for joining.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.

Bye.