An expression that means something is very high quality. Learn it here.
Feifei
Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too. I’m Feifei, and I’m here with Beth.
Beth
Hi everyone, and hi Feifei, how are you?
Feifei
I’m very well, thank you. In this programme, we’re actually going to learn a word that I heard you say when you were talking about food. It was ‘top-notch’.
Beth
Ah, yes! ‘Top-notch’. So, yeah, earlier I was talking about going to my brother’s house where I had some amazing plant-based food. I couldn’t believe how tasty it was with no meat or dairy. It was top-notch.
Feifei
Oo sounds lovely. I’d love to try it! So, top-notch is an adjective that means something is of very high standard or high quality. And we can use it for people too. I actually had some top-notch food recently too.
Beth
Oo, what did you have?
Feifei
Well, I went to an independent café around the corner from my house and they make the best carrot cake. It was top-notch, so delicious.
Beth
Mm, sounds really good.
Feifei
Beth, can we use ‘top-notch’ for things other than food?
Beth
Yes, we can. So, for example, I went to the theatre recently. I saw a show in the West End and it was top notch. The singing was phenomenal. The dancing was amazing. Yeah, it was really good.
Feifei
So, it was top-notch.
Beth
It was. Now, here are some more examples of the adjective ‘top-notch’.
Examples
My friend wrote a book and asked me to read it. I thought it was going to be really bad, but actually it was top-notch. I really enjoyed it.
I went to a conference last week and all of the presentations were absolutely top-notch.
I’ve just got back from holiday. I was expecting the hotel to be pretty bad, but it was actually top-notch.
Beth
We can use ‘top-notch’ to talk about business-related things too. For example, you might be hiring someone for a job and you see a top-notch CV that makes you want to give that person an interview.
Feifei
Yes. In this case you could also say I saw a CV that is top-notch. So top-notch is an adjective, and it can be put before or after a noun.
Beth
So, to recap, we’ve learnt the adjective ‘top-notch’, which means very high quality.
Feifei
And yes, that’s all from us, and we’ll be back next week. See you next time!
Beth
Bye!
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