In this mini episode, you will learn the interesting idiom “nothing to sneeze at.”
Episode 398 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the interesting idiom “nothing to sneeze at.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“This is Ilahe, from Azerbaijan. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 398 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to teach you a very interesting idiom. The idiom is “nothing to sneeze at.” Nothing to sneeze at. That’s n-o-t-h-i-n-g, t-o, s-n-e-e-z-e, a-t. Nothing to sneeze at.
Before I tell you what this expression means and how to use it, I need to make sure that you understand the word sneeze.
Do you know what it means to sneeze? To sneeze means to make a sound like this:
[sneezes]
When you make a sound like that, you are sneezing.
What does it mean when we say that something is “nothing to sneeze at”? It might sound hard to believe or hard to understand, but when we say that something is nothing to sneeze at, we mean that it is actually important. Or it is more important than you might think. Maybe there is something that many people think is unimportant. But you want to say, “No, this thing is important. You’re wrong. It is not unimportant.” You can say that by saying, “It is nothing to sneeze at.”
For example, let’s say that your friend got his first job as a professional musician. He is going to be performing music somewhere and getting paid to do it. When your friend tells you about this, he says, “They’re not going to pay me very much money. They are really only going to pay me a small amount.”
Let’s say that you think this is just great news. This is very impressive! Your friend is going to be a professional musician.
So you could say to your friend, “That is nothing to sneeze at.” In other words, “You are saying that this doesn’t really matter. It’s not important. It’s insignificant. But I disagree. I don’t think that it is unimportant. I think it’s nothing to sneeze at. It is actually a big deal. It is actually important or significant.”
You are probably wondering, Why do people say “nothing to sneeze at” when they mean this? And that, of course, is a great question. Why do we say “nothing to sneeze at”?
I think the answer has to do with a very similar expression. We can also use the expression “nothing to sniff at.”
Do you know what sniffing is? Do you know what it means to sniff? It means to breathe in quickly through your nose.
[sniffing sounds]
That’s a sniffing sound.
[sniffing sounds]
I’m sniffing.
I think maybe at some time people used that gesture, sniffing, when they thought that something was unimportant. If you sniffed at something, you were saying, “That is not important.”
And then maybe the expression changed a little bit to “nothing to sneeze at.” I think it has something to do with that other expression.
And that is “nothing to sneeze at,” a strange, interesting, and useful expression that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 398 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Ilahe recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!