Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry, where I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language. So in this particular advanced English lesson, we're going to look at 10 different ways, useful expressions that you can use when somebody does something well or does a good job or makes a good job of something.
Okay, so just a little apology here that if you do hear a little croak in my voice, a little bit of a frog, it's just I've been suffering from a virus in the last week or 10 days, so it does affect me when I do a lot of talking. So hopefully it will hold up for the rest of this particular video. Okay, let's start. Number one, to be an ace at something.
Yeah, if any of you are tennis fans, when a tennis player serves the ball and the opposite player on the other side of the net isn't able to hit the ball, it's called an ace. Okay, so when you ace something, you really do really, really well with it. So to be an ace at something means to be number one, the best. And if somebody does a great job or perhaps your kids get an amazing mark in that history or mathematics exam, you can say, wow, you aced it or you really aced it.
And that way they'll feel good and you'll feel cool because it's a good expression to use. So to be an ace at something or to ace it. Wow, he really aced that exam. He did great. Yeah. Okay. Or in fact, your kids will probably use it before you do. And they might, if you ask them, how did you get on an exam? I aced it. Yeah. I'm always a bit cautious when my son tells me he aced the exam because I take it with a little pinch of salt until I see the results myself.
And for those of you and your friends or family who want one-to-one lessons, well, you know what to do. Just get in touch, www.englishlessonviaskype.com and you can apply for a free trial lesson and we'll be very happy to hear from you and very happy to help you. Okay, number two, to be good with your hands. Well, this is an expression we use when people are really good with tools.
They can build shelves, they can put up shelves, they can fix broken windows, they can fix old radios, they can replace the brake pads on the car, whatever it is you need doing, they can do it because they are good with the hands. You know that bit of work you're doing in the house, you should ask Liam to help you. He's really good with his hands and you know what he's like. He will do anything for anybody.
So to be good with your hands is to be able to do lots of different things, electrical, plumbing, woodwork and carpentry, any of those general DIY jobs around the house. Okay. Now, something similar to be a dab hand. And usually the expression here is to be a dab hand at something. So you could be a dab hand at painting. You could be a dab hand at carpentry. You could be a dab hand at jigsaw puzzles.
It doesn't matter what it is, but a dab hand means really, really good, top-notch, somebody who's really good. Oh, he's a dab hand at photography. I mean, have you seen the quality of the photographs he takes? I mean, and he doesn't use any of this photoshopping. He's just really, really skillful. He has a great eye for photography to be a dab hand at that. Okay. Now, you could be a dab hand at sports, all sorts of ball sports, no matter what it is.
Tennis, table tennis, volleyball, cricket, football, anything involving a ball. This guy is really good. He's a dab hand at any sport that involves a ball or a racket. A dab hand. Number four, to have a natural flair for it or to have a natural flair for something. Okay. Now, this usually means that we are born with an extra special gift that other people don't have. You know, that guy who takes the ball and he beats five or six guys on the pitch and scores a goal without any difficulty.
He has a natural flair for it. Or one of the children picks up languages very easily. They are fluent in English. They are fluent in maybe the mother tongue of their mother or father. And then when they're at school, they pick up French or German really, really easily. And yeah, they have a flair for it. So when kids have a flair for languages, wow, there's no stopping them because the world will open up and they can travel anywhere, they can work anywhere, they can do whatever they wish.
Yeah, to have a flair or a natural flair for something. So you can have a natural flair for sports, you can have a natural flair, as I mentioned, for languages. You can have a natural flair for cooking. Yeah, something like that. Okay. Something very similar to having a natural flair is to have a natural or to have a gift for something. He has a gift for talking to people. He has a gift for making people feel at ease. He has a gift for languages.
So again, similar to flair, a gift is not something that he has been given by his grandparents for their birthday present, but something probably that he was born with. Yeah, he has a gift for it. And it means just generally, yep, he's a little bit unusual. Some kids have to learn it. Some kids have to be well practiced, but he just has a gift for it. He's just able to take to it without any difficulty.
So as soon as you put him into the swimming pool, off he goes without any instruction, swimming across the pool, up and down the pool, and you're just standing there in amazement. Wow, he has a gift or a natural gift for water. Yeah, so he's able to swim. Okay. To have an ear for something. And usually when we're talking about this, to have an ear for something, it's usually connected with music or singing or something like that. He or she, they've always been interested in music.
They have an ear for it. I mean, they picked up the notes and the piano so quickly that, okay, they had a few lessons, but within a couple of months, my goodness, they were playing tunes that you could never imagine. And I think the piano teacher is really, really surprised. So to have an ear for music, to have an ear for songs, or even an ear for poetry, perhaps, yeah. So something that, again, is a natural flair or a natural gift. So to have an ear for music.
To have an eye for detail is our next one, number seven, to have an eye for detail. So some people can be a little bit sloppy in the way they do things, a little bit messy, you know, like you don't stay right inside the lines or everything's not so neatly cut. But when somebody has an eye for detail, they make very, very few mistakes. They go into detail, everything in the very last little nth detail. Okay, so the painting on the wall is perfect.
The coloring when they're coloring with the kids and the coloring books is perfect. The typing is neat. Everything is in the right way, the right format. So yeah, they have a great eye for detail. So a particularly useful skill to have when you're decorating your home or if you're involved or working in the area of interior design. And of course, having an eye for detail is really, really important.
If you're an architect and you're designing a house or redesigning somebody's house, you really need to see every little detail of that home and then you bring it all out in your drawing so that when they do the work or the change or the renovation, they're going to be really, really happy. Wow, he's a great architect. I'd recommend him to anybody. Such an eye for detail. Yeah, he really gets the colors right, every little bit. Yeah, everything is perfect and perfect symmetry.
Everything matches to have an eye for detail. Then we can have a head for figures. And of course, as it suggests, it's to do with mathematics. He's going to make a great accountant. He's got such a head for figures. If you just give him a bunch of numbers, he'll work it out very, very quickly. He can think on his feet. He can work out percentages, multiplications. So he has a great head for figures. So he doesn't even need a calculator. So he's really, really quick.
So I would think mathematics or something in the accounting field or financial field is certainly going to be his speciality when he grows up because at the moment he's got a great head for figures. He can calculate the cost of anything. He can work out the tax on something. He can tell you how much the bill is going to be in the restaurant for 20 people before the waiter even gets to us. So he's got a great head for figures.
So when we say a head for figures, it means we can calculate something in our head. When we've got an eye for detail, we can see something very clearly. When we've got an ear for music, then we can hear something very clearly, understand the notes. So the part of the body, the eye or the ear or the head, dictates really what we're talking about when we're using something that somebody can do particularly well.
Okay, now the next one, if you're a journalist or you'd like to think that you could be a journalist or you like writing stories or reporting on different things, then people might refer to you as having a nose, so the nose for a really good story. So lots of journalists, you know, they write for local newspapers, they write for the national papers, they're all now based online. But some of these journalists you like to follow because they really, really look into something in great detail.
And you can say, yeah, he's somebody to follow. He has a nose for a great story. So what might start off to be something simple or innocent or not too detailed, after several weeks, you can see that this guy's gone into it in such a great amount of detail. You're going to hear everything. So he's got a nose for a good story. So he's able to dig out information. He's able to find out information on people that you didn't know. He's able to notice and understand when there's something wrong.
And perhaps it's worth investigating further. So somebody with a nose for a great story. Okay, that's number nine. So finally, number 10, to have a good memory or indeed to have a poor memory. So if you never remember numbers or you never remember dates of birth or things like that, then yeah, you've got a really poor memory. So you're not doing things so well. But if you have a good memory or a great memory, you don't have to be told a telephone number twice.
You can remember it the first time, repeat it. You know everybody's date of birth. You know all the anniversaries, you know all the important events. Ha, what a guy. What a memory he's got. He's got a great memory. He can memorize anything, any number. Some people have a gift for that particular thing. For me, I don't see it as so important. I've got a mobile phone and in that I have all the telephone numbers that I need. My only problem is if I lose the mobile phone, what am I going to do?
Yeah, so yeah. So if you can't remember where you put your phone, that could indeed be a problem. So you need to have at least a memory that is sufficient to allow you to remember where you left your telephone. Okay, so there are 10 ways in which you can say somebody has done very well at something or to do something well. And as I said, they're great to use in exam situations. To be an ace at or to ace something. To be good with your hands, meaning manually you can make things or fix things.
To be a dab hand at something. You can pick up something very easily. Particularly DIY type jobs, to be a dab hand. To have a natural flair for something. To have a gift for something. To have an ear for music. To have an eye for detail in photography. To have a head for figures as an accountant or financial advisor. To have a nose like a journalist for a good story, a meaty, juicy story. To have a nose for a good story.
And finally, to have a good memory or indeed to have a poor or a bad memory. Okay, so 10 different ways, useful vocabulary expressions that you can use and impress your native friends. Okay, so this is Harry. Thanking you for listening. Once again, if you need to contact me, you can do so, www.englishlessonviaskite.com. This is Harry. Thanking you for watching. Thanking you for listening. And just remember, have a good memory and join me again for the next lesson.