Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN A LITTLE BIT and IT'S GOING TO BE A WHILEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in a little bit. Now, when we say in a little bit, we mean a small amount. And we can be talking about time or an actual thing. Here's a good example. Let's say that my mom is coming over to visit and one of my kids says, when will Grandma be here? I could say, she'll be here in a little bit. If we're having a ni...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English ending -WISE and the term WISE GUYIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn how to use the suffix wise. A suffix is something that comes at the end of a word and when we use wise it means in relation to something. So if I was to say this, temperature- wise, it's a really nice day today. If I look in my wallet though, money- wise, my wallet's a little bit empty. Or if my boss said, is that project on time? I might say, ooh, ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BY DAY, BY NIGHT, and NIGHT OWLIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrases by day and by night. I'm a teacher by day and a YouTuber by night. So when you use by day and by night, you're describing when something happens. You often hear this in a superhero movie, Superman is Clark Kent by day and Superman by night. Or is that Batman? Batman is Bruce Wayne by day and Batman by night. Yeah, that makes...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I BEG TO DIFFER and IT BEGS THE QUESTIONIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase I beg to differ. This is a phrase when someone says something and we don't agree with them, we might start by saying, I beg to differ. If someone was to say, I think that, let's see, France has the best football players in the world, I might say, I beg to differ. I think Canada has the best football players in the wo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RUB OFF ON and TO RUB SOMEONE'S NOSE IN ITIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase To rub off on. Now we use this phrase to describe when the behavior of one person starts to be mimicked or copied by another person. Sometimes one person can rub off on another person. So here's a good example. If your boss is mean to everyone, that can rub off on you. And you might start to be mean to other peo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BAD ATTITUDE and POSITIVE ATTITUDEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term bad attitude. If someone has a bad attitude, it means they think something's going to go badly before it even starts or even while it's happening. Here's a good example. Maybe you go to watch your favorite sports team, and as the game is starting, you say, ah, they're going to lose tonight because the best player is injured ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MORE OR LESS and LESS IS MOREIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase more or less. In English, when we say more or less, it means almost or sort of. If you asked me if I was done cleaning my house, I might say more or less. That means I have most of the work done. Maybe there's a couple little things here and there that I still need to clean up, but I'm kind of done cleaning the house, more or l...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FALL COLOURS and BLACK AND WHITEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase fall colors. If you live in a country where the leaves on the trees turn a different color in the fall, in the autumn, we call those the fall colors. I'm not sure if you can see behind me, this tree is still green, but way in the distance, we'll walk over there later. You can see that there are some fall colors. Those trees ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases TO BREEZE THROUGH and TO SHOOT THE BREEZEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to breeze through. When you breeze through something, it means you do it quickly and easily. At school, I had a whole stack of student work that I needed to look at. Well, that truck's pretty loud. I'm not sure if you can hear it. I had a whole stack of student work that I needed to look at and I thought it was going to be ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms DOUBLE WHAMMY and DOUBLE DOUBLEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term double whammy. When we say something is a double whammy, it means two bad things happened right in a row. And I have a good example for you. I was really busy at work, and then when I was done being busy at work, I got sick. I got a stuffed up nose and a sore throat. It was a double whammy. If you haven't noticed, there hasn't be...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases TO PLUG AWAY and TO PULL THE PLUGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to plug away. When you plug away at something, it means you work out it slowly and methodically until it's done. It doesn't necessarily mean it's something exciting, either. Sometimes you plug away at things that you don't actually want to do because you just want to get them done. A great example would be this. Sometimes I give my...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms ON GOOD TERMS and ON BAD TERMSIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase on good terms. When you're on good terms with someone, it means that when you talk to them, they're happy to see you. It means that if you see them in the street and they see you, they'll wave or they'll come and talk to you instead of walking the other way. When you're on good terms with someone, it means you have a good relati...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases "BETWEEN JOBS" and "ODD JOBS"In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase between jobs. When someone says they are between jobs, it means they don't currently have a job. It's kind of a nice way of saying that you're unemployed. If someone says they're between jobs, it means somehow their last job ended. Maybe they got fired, maybe they got laid off, maybe they quit and they are looking for another job. So t...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SIT IN ON and TO SIT OUTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sit in on. It's a nice phrasal verb with two prepositions at the end, which makes it a little confusing. This means to go to something like a class to observe rather than take it. At work, sometimes the principal needs to check if I'm teaching properly and so the principal will sit in on one of my classes. When you visit a sch...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases "no pun intended" and "pun intended"In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase no pun intended. Now, first, I should explain what a pun is. A pun is when you say something and it's funny because maybe one of the words has two meanings. So sometimes you say something and you realize after you say it that it's funny. I could say something like this, I'm going to go out on the river in my kayak and I'll proba...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FLIP-FLOP and TO DO AN ABOUT-FACEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English verb to flip flop. When you flip flop on something, it means you change your mind. Usually it means you change your mind to the exact opposite. Let's say your boss said everyone is going to get Friday off this week. And then the next day your boss says everyone has to work on Friday. We would say that your boss flip flopped. Yo...

Read along to practice your English pronunciation of the words REACH and RICH, PEACH and PITCHIn this English lesson, I wanted to talk about the difference in pronunciation between reach and rich. This is actually from a question that's from a viewer that I'm going to read later, but I'm going to answer the question first. At the beginning of the video, when you reach for something, you reach for something with your hand. It's kind of a longer e sound. You reach for something, I can reach tow...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OUT OF REACH and OUT OF TOUCHIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out of reach. When something is out of reach, it simply means when you try to grab it, it's a little too far away. Sometimes in the kitchen, there are things on the top shelf and they are out of reach. You can't reach them, but it can also mean that something you want to do is something you'll never be able to do. I will never ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases STUCK IN YOUR WAYS and TO BE STUCK ON SOMETHINGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase stuck in your ways. When you're stuck in your ways, it means you do certain things a certain way, and you will not change the way you do it. You are stuck in your ways. I'm stuck in my ways for some things. Like, for instance, many people have suggested that I stop using a piece of paper, that I should get an ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL DONE! and BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase all done. Now, you probably know this phrase. It's a pretty common one. It means that you've done a job and the job is finished. You are all done. I love it when I finish something and I can say that I'm all done. I'll give you a better view of that later. But I worked on this for a long time, and now I'm all done. I sta...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RUN OUT OF STEAM and TO BE STEAMEDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to run out of steam. When you run out of steam, it means you're really tired after working for a long time or maybe hiking all day or doing something that is a bit exhausting. Yesterday I worked really long. I worked till it was really late last night and I ran out of steam. At around 7:30 I thought, you know, I should ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO THIN OUT and TO SPREAD YOURSELF TOO THINIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to thin out. Now, this has two meanings or two ways that you can use this. One is kind of when you see something thin out and then you can actually thin something out. Let me explain. If you were to go up a mountain, at the bottom of the mountain, there might be trees, but as you go up the mountain, the trees will...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DEAL WITH and A GOOD DEALIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to deal with. When you need to deal with something, it means you are going to take care of it. You are going to take responsibility for maybe solving something or doing something. Here are two examples. Let's say at school there's some students, a teacher sees some students far away that are misbehaving. I could say, oh, I'll wa...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME and the term TWO-FACEDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English saying, two can play at that game. This is a phrase we use when someone does something, maybe not a nice thing, and you think to yourself, hmm, two can play at that game. And then you do something similar. Let's say you're playing a game of hockey and it's non contact. That's when you're not supposed to check or hit eac...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying IT'S NOT THE HEAT, IT'S THE HUMIDITY and the phrase TO BEAT THE HEATIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English saying, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. So it is really, really hot out here in Ontario, Canada right now. The last few days have been over 30 degrees celsius, and today it's going to be over 30 degrees celsius again. And something we kind of say jokingly when it's this hot is, hey, it's not...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET THE WRONG IDEA and TO BE IN THE WRONGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get the wrong idea. Now, we usually use this to talk about when someone interprets what someone else says or does and they interpret it wrong. And it usually happens in a situation where someone is just being friendly and the other person might get the wrong idea and think that they're interested in them roman...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO CLUE IN and TO NOT HAVE A CLUEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to clue in. When you clue into something, it means you've heard some small facts about something and then suddenly you realize something has happened. Jen's at market right now and I'm home today. I think Oscar has finally clued in that Jen has gone. He's checked outside a few times today. He's gone to look in the flower fi...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE SHORT TERM and THE LONG TERMIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the short term. When we say the short term, we're talking about for the next day or the next few hours or the next week, like a short amount of time between now and a future situation. Sometimes we fix things for the short term. We know that for the short term the fix will last. Maybe you put some tape on a piece of clothing...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GO OFF ON SOMEONE and TO GO OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to go off on someone. When you go off on someone, it means you get angry. It means you're annoyed with them. They've done something that has really, really annoyed you, and then you are angry. You might even be yelling. Sometimes people have a really mean boss and they're afraid to talk to their boss because their boss mig...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FEEL AT HOME and THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOMEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to feel at home. When you go somewhere else, somewhere that's not your home and you really enjoy it. You can describe it by saying that you feel at home. Sometimes when you go and stay at a friend's house, maybe it's just really relaxing and really enjoyable. And you can say, well, when I'm at Joe's place, I ju...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HAVE A REPUTATION and YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDES YOUIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to have a reputation. When you have a reputation, it means that something about you, one of your character traits is so strong that people think about you when they think about that character trait. Let me try to explain this a little bit better. I think I'm a nice teacher. I think I have a reputation as...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL THE RAGE and ROAD RAGEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase all the rage. When something is all the rage, it means everyone is doing it or everyone is wearing it. In my world, people who are my age, it's all the rage to wear dad shoes. I'll put a picture here of what dad shoes look like, but they're all the rage. But something funny happened because now those shoes are also popular with yo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HOMEWARD BOUND and A STRAIGHT SHOTHey, it's been a lot of fun hanging out with Brent. Today's the day where I might be leaving later today. I might be leaving tomorrow morning. I'm gonna be homeward bound. So homeward bound means that you are on your way home. Right, now, so do you think that you're going to stop along the way? It's a twelve hour drive. Maybe you'll get tired and stop halfway. I might stop halfway, or I migh...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FINALLY DONE and FINELY DONEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase finally done. Now, I used this phrase, actually, in yesterday's video. I think I said something like, the school year is finally done. And this simply means that something that you want to be finished has actually finished. And maybe you've been waiting for that for a long time. Maybe you're studying English and you're finally d...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MAKES SENSE and DOESN'T MAKE SENSEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase makes sense. When something makes sense, it just means it's logical. If it's something that someone designed, they design it in a logical way. In a way that makes sense. There's a store in North America called Costco. It's a large store and everything there makes sense. The size of the shopping carts makes sense. They're l...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WHY THE LONG FACE? and THE LONG WAY HOMEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, why the long face? This is a question you might ask someone if they look sad. Like if their face looks sad, if they look sad, you might say, hey, why the long face? Now, I haven't actually used this question a lot lately, but I did hear an older person use it the other day. So it might be an older phrase. If you see...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying ABOVE AND BEYOND and BEYOND COMPAREIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase above and beyond. When you go above and beyond, it means you do a really, really good job. If at work, my boss said to me, Bob, can you work on this project? And if I worked on it for like, ten or 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for three weeks, he might say, wow, you really went above and beyond. You did more than I wa...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions phrases TO PLAY DIRTY and A DIRTY LOOKIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to play dirty. When you play a game, maybe you're playing soccer or what most of you call football, or you're playing a board game. If you cheat or if you use tactics that aren't good, we say that you are playing dirty. When you play dirty, it means you cheat at something. I'm going to tell you a little story quick...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying NO HARM, NO FOUL! and the term FOUL LANGUAGEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English saying no harm, no foul. This is a saying we use when we do something that maybe could be bad, but if nothing bad happens, then no foul has occurred. A foul is like a negative thing in life or in a sports game. If you do something wrong, you could get a foul. Let me think of a good example. Let's say I borrowed my brothe...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions I HEAR YOU and I GOT YOUIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase I hear you. Now, this can simply mean that you can hear someone. But we also use this when we agree with what someone said and we want to let them know that we think the same way as them. So someone might say to you, hey, the boss was really mean to me the other day. You could say, I hear you, man. Yeah, he wasn't in a very good...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AT THIS STAGE and STAGE FRIGHTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase at this stage. Now, this is something you can use to talk about life. You can use it to talk about a project, and you use it to talk about the part that you're in right now. So here's a few examples. At this stage in my life, I'm really enjoying the fact that my kids are older. I liked having little kids, but it's a lot more w...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions TO GIVE SOMEBODY THE SLIP and TO SLIP THROUGH YOUR FINGERSIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to give somebody the slip. If you give somebody the slip, it means you escape. It means for some reason, they were trying to catch you and you managed to get away. You will most likely hear this phrase, to give somebody the slip if you're watching a TV show and the police officers on the TV show...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP SOMETHING UNDER WRAPS and IT'S HUSH-HUSH!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to keep something under wraps. Now, if you're told to keep something under wraps, it means you're supposed to keep it a secret. You're not supposed to tell anyone about it. Maybe at work there's a new project that three people are working on and someone tells you about it, but they say, hey, you need to keep...

Here is the link to Jen's Youtube channel about the flower farm: http://www.youtube.com/@myflowerfarmRead along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions TO CRY WOLF and TO WOLF DOWNIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to cry wolf. Now, this phrase comes from a fable, a story from long ago, about a boy who kept yelling that there was a wolf attacking his sheep. And then the villagers would come and help him and there would be no wolf. And h...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PULL OUT and TO PULL THROUGHIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to pull out. Now, this has a number of different meanings, but the meaning I wanted to focus on today means to withdraw from something. So let's say you signed up to play in a badminton tournament and the tournament is in two weeks, but at the last minute, you might decide to pull out. You might decide to withdraw your regist...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions SOUNDS GOOD! and SOUNDS BAD!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression sounds good. Now this is something we say to people when we are agreeing with them. If a friend of mine said, hey Bob, do you want to meet at the restaurant tomorrow at 08:00 in the morning for some breakfast, I might say, sounds good, I'll see you then. Sometimes Jen needs help with some work when I get home from school...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms SPACED OUT and SPACE CADETIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term spaced out. Now you can have things spaced out. You can see these trees here are spaced out. When Jen and I planted those willow trees years ago, I think they're about three paces apart. We spaced them out. You can also see along my driveway here the little markers so people don't drive in the snow are spaced out. But when you say som...

So today's English lesson is going to be a little different. I'm going to tell you a joke, and the joke is this, how does the moon cut his hair? I'll let you think about that for a bit. You'll understand why I'm asking this joke in about 3 seconds. How does the moon cut his hair? Eclipse it. And this is kind of a little bit of a play on words. An eclipse is when the moon goes across the sun, which is happening in a few days here. But it sounds like, he clips it. So when you say eclipse it or ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FAIR SHARE and NO FAIR!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase fair share. When you get your fair share, it means something has been divided up and everyone got an equal amount. Let's say I'm sitting in my kitchen and I'm about to eat a piece of pie, and all of my children come into the kitchen. I might cut the pie up into exactly eight pieces so that everyone gets a fair share. But that wouldn'...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms TO TAG ALONG and TO PLAY PHONE TAGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to tag along. When you tag along with someone, it means you go with them. If Jen said that her and her brother were going to see a movie, I might say, hey, can I tag along? I'd like to see that movie as well. So it does have a positive sound to it. When you tag along, it can be a positive thing, but we sometimes use it to ta...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A REGULAR HAUNT and TO COME BACK TO HAUNTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a regular haunt. So, haunt is a word we use to talk about ghosts. Like, ghosts can haunt a building, but when you say something was your regular haunt, it means it's a place you used to go to a lot. So this used to be my regular haunt. 25 years ago, I played soccer. I didn't play a lot of soccer, but I played on a s...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms YOU'RE ONE TO TALK! and LOOK WHO'S TALKING!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, you're one to talk. This is kind of a sarcastic phrase that we use to kind of make fun of someone when they're being critical of other people, but they are doing the thing, they're being critical of themselves. That sounded a little confusing. Let me explain. If I was eating a doughnut and if I said to you as I ate...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DO LUNCH and THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCHIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to do lunch. If you say to someone, hey, do you want to do lunch tomorrow? It simply means you want to have lunch with them. You want to go to a restaurant and order some food and sit and eat it together. You could also say, hey, do you want to go have lunch tomorrow? It means the same thing. But do lunc...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms A NO-BRAINER and A BRAINIACIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term a no-brainer. When we say something is a no-brainer, it means it's very obvious, it's very easy. There's not a lot of thought that needs to go into the decision to do it. Here are a couple of examples. Jen loves growing things. Jen loves flowers. So it was a no-brainer for her to decide to start a business where she grows and sells f...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EYE SOMETHING and TO HAVE AN EYE FOR SOMETHINGIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to eye something. When you eye something, it means you look at it usually because you want it. It can have other meanings as well, but usually when I eye something, it means I want it. If I'm sitting in a room and there are cookies on a plate, I will eye the cookies while I'm talking to people because I'm th...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MAKE EYE CONTACT and TO MAKE CONTACTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to make eye contact. When you talk to someone, you can look directly into their eyes. You can make eye contact when you talk to them. But often when you're having conversations, you do look away occasionally as well. There's a little bit of lightning there. I hope I can get this video done safely. Anyways, when you ma...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BUGGER OFF and TO DO BUGGER ALLIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to bugger off. Now, this is definitely an informal phrase. You wouldn't use this in a formal situation, but when you say someone is going to bugger off, it means that they are going to leave, and it usually means that you probably didn't want them to leave. A good example would be this. If I had a car accident, if someone ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE OFF and TO BACK OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the phrase to be off. Now, this has a few meanings. The one I'm going to focus on today simply means to leave. If I said to Jen, I'm off. I'm going to go to town and buy some gas. It means that I have my keys in my hand. It means that I'm about to go out the door and I'm going to drive to town. So when you say that you are off, it means that you are ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BLOW OFF STEAM and DON'T BLOW IT!So I thought we'd start this video by watching the sander truck go by backwards. We're getting a little bit of snow here, so that's a little bit of fun. So I'll start the lesson in just a sec. Let me get set up. I wasn't quite ready.Well, there's a little bit of snow on my lens, but hopefully you can see this. In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to blow off...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE WIRED FOR and TO BE PRONE TOIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be wired for. We sometimes say to be wired to, but I actually use for more often. When you're wired for something, it means you're naturally good at it. If you think about a professional hockey player, they're wired for skating on the ice. It just seems like their brain already knew how to do that. Like, if you can pict...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases GIMME A BREAK! and GIMME A SEC!In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase give me a break. Which is the short, informal way of saying give me a break. This is a sentence or phrase we use in a couple situations. One is when you really need a break. Let's say Jen and I are putting flowers in the van and Jen is trying to get me to work faster. I might say to her, give me a break. I'm working as fast a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A TWO-WAY STREET and THE WORD ON THE STREETIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a two-way street. Now, the street behind me is a two-way street. You can drive that way on that street or you can drive the other way. But this phrase also has a different meaning. It's used to describe a relationship or situation where things go both ways. Let's think about respect. When two people respect each o...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AN OPEN MIND and IN THE OPENIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase an open mind. When you have an open mind, it means that you're willing to listen to other points of view. It means that even if you've decided you think something is a certain way, you're willing to listen to other people say that they think it's different. Here's a good example. When I was young, I remember that we had garbage ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS and TO JUMP THE GUNIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to jump to conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, it means you think something is true before you actually have all the facts or know for sure that it is true. Let me think of an example. Let's say you came to school and you went to my classroom and there were no students there. You might jump to conclusions. Y...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FREEZE TO DEATH and TO BE FROZEN IN TIMEHey, I'm going to start this lesson by showing you how Canadians put gloves on with one hand. You have to use your mouth.Anyways, in this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to freeze the death. To freeze to death. Sorry, I'm having trouble talking because it's so cold. We use this phrase sometimes to exaggerate. I mean, to use the word death to exaggerate ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S COLD! and TO STOP COLDIn this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase that's cold. This is a phrase we use to describe when someone does something that's kind of mean, something that's not very nice. Here's a good example. Let's say your cousin is dating someone and he decides to break up with your cousin. So he sends her a text message saying, I don't want to go out with you anymore. We would say, oh...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AT A SNAIL'S PACE and TO PACE YOURSELFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase at a snail's pace. Now, I'm not going to tell you what this means right away. I'm going to give you a few seconds to think about this. If you know what a snail is, there's a good chance you know what a snail's pace is. So let me just go one, two, three. Let you think about it for 3 seconds. It means to go very, very sl...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DOUBLE DOWN and TO DOUBLE DIPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to double down. When you double down on something, it means you work harder at it. This week at school, even though the semester is almost over, I need to double down on some of my work. I'm a little behind in my grading. I have some student work that I need to look at, so I need to double down. That means instead of coming ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THERE'S NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT and TO BE PRESENTIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase there's no time like the present. This is a phrase that we say to people when they're talking about starting something new or they're starting about maybe restarting something. You might say, hey, there's no time like the present. So let's say my brother said to me, I'm thinking of going to the gym again. I...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PULL YOUR SOCKS UP and TO BEAT THE SOCKS OFFIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to pull your socks up. Or you could also say to pull up your socks. Both work. It simply means to work harder and work better. I think I did teach this phrase in a lesson on my bigger channel at one point. But when you say to someone, you need to pull your socks up or you need to pull up your socks, it means t...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN A JIFFY and BEFORE YOU KNOW ITIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in a jiffy. This simply means that something happens very, very quickly. It's an older phrase. I don't actually use it that often anymore. But I did hear my mom use it the other day. She said she was going to be back in a jiffy. We were playing a board game and she went to get something out of her purse and she said, oh, I'...

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to shake things up". When you shake things up, it means that you change things. Sorry, Walter just came running here. There he is. That scared me a little bit. I don't know if I jumped or not, but anyways, when you shake things up, it means you change things, hopefully so things get better. Here's a good example. I watch the Toronto Raptors and last year they decided that they were going to get a new head coach. They wante...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE IN THE KNOW and FOR ALL I KNOW...In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to be in the know". When you are in the know, it means that you know something is going to happen. Here's an example. If I was planning a surprise birthday party for my mom and if someone said, who all knows about this? I could say, well, my brother and sister are in the know. That means that they know that this part...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE GREAT OUTDOORS and TO GO TO GREAT LENGTHSIn this English lesson. I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "the great outdoors". Well we're in it. We're in the great outdoors. This is simply a fun way to refer to being outside in nature. When I made my video on my other channel the other day, I was in the great outdoors. I went for a hike. It was a lot of fun. It's fun to be in the great outdoors. And we use this phr...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TAKE FOR GRANTED and TO BE TAKEN ABACKIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to take for granted”. Now you can take something for granted, or you can take someone for granted and it means you don't recognize or notice them. Here's a great example, and it's coming up in the comment later. The sky where I live is very, very blue, but sometimes I take that for granted. That means I don't always...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DILLY-DALLY AROUND and TO ASK AROUNDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to dilly-dally around." Now, this is an older phrase, and you won't hear it very much anymore, but my mom said it the other day. My mom said that when she goes down for lunch, she lives in an old age home, she doesn't dilly-dally around. She just goes down as quickly as possible, because if she dilly-dallies around, ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE ALL OVER SOMETHING and ALL OVER THE PLACEIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to be all over something”. Now, in English, when you say that you're all over something, it means you know a lot about it. Or it means at work that you're doing the job you're supposed to be doing. If my boss said to me, Hey, we need someone who knows a lot about computers, I could say, Oh, Dan is all over tha...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SPREAD THE WORD and SPREAD OUTIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase. “Spread the word!” Now, this is something we tell people when we want them to tell other people about something. Every year the farmer's market opens at the beginning of June and we tell people, Spread the word. The first day of the market is June 2nd or something like that. Spread the word. This means that we want people to t...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BETTER YOURSELF and BETTER OFFIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to better yourself”. When you better yourself, it means you do something that makes you a better person. Sorry, I'm defining the phrase by using a word in the phrase. That's not a good way to do it. Let's say you don't have a very good job. You might decide to go to school at night to better yourself so that you can get a b...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RACK YOUR BRAIN and TO PICK SOMEONE'S BRAINIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to rack your brain”. When you rack your brain, it means you're trying to remember something. Sometimes, when summer ends and school starts again, I run into students on the first day or during the first week of school, and I have to rack my brain a bit to remember their name. Sometimes this happens at market as...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FLY OFF THE SHELVES and TO SELL LIKE HOTCAKESIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to fly off the shelves”. If you are in a store and they are selling something, maybe it's on sale and people are just grabbing it and buying it as fast as they can, we would say that that product is flying off the shelves. Sometimes at market we bring a certain kind of flower that people really like and it wi...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TAKE A LOAD OFF and TO TAKE A BREATHERIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to take a load off”. When you tell someone to take a load off or when you decide to take a load off. It means you're going to relax usually after working. The last few days, I've come home and I just need to take a load off. I take off my shoes when I walk in the house and I just sit on the couch for about half an h...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A LITTLE SOMETHING and A LITTLE OFFIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “a little something”. This is a phrase we use to describe something when we don't quite know how to describe it. If you watch this English lesson to the end, I added a little bit of music. I thought that my videos needed just a little something. I didn't know quite what it was, but I thought, you know, I need a little some...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases COULD BE WORSE and TO GO FROM BAD TO WORSEIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “could be worse”. Now, this is a phrase that we use in two different situations. If you said to me, Hey, Bob, how's it going? I might answer. Could be worse. This is a response to that greeting that means nothing's really bad in my life, but nothing's really good. It's a very neutral answer and kind of a funny one. ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN HINDSIGHT and HINDSIGHT IS 20/20In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “with hindsight”, or sometimes we say “in hindsight”. And this simply means when looking back in time. So I could say this, “With hindsight we know that dumping garbage into the ocean is a bad idea.” If we look back 50 or 100 years, we know that some of the things we did were bad. So with hindsight, when we look back in ti...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A CLEAN SLATE and CLEAN AS A WHISTLEIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “a clean slate”. When you start something with a clean slate, it means it's brand new and no one's aware of you or the mistakes you've made in the past. Let's say you have a job and you quit. When you start your new job, you would start with a clean slate. No one at the new job knows that you've made mistakes in the past....

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FLAT OUT and FLAT BROKEIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “flat out”. When you go flat out, it means you're going as fast as you can possibly go. When Usain Bolt runs the hundred meter, he runs flat out. He can't go any faster. We also use this phrase to talk about things like work. For the last few days, I've been working flat out. I've been working really, really hard. Jen and I have both...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP UP and FOR KEEPSIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, “to keep up”. So you might notice that if I move over here, my camera follows me. And if I move over here, my camera follows me. I bought a gimbal because I feel like I need to keep up. I don't want to get behind. That would be the opposite. I want to keep up. When it comes to technology, I don't like to spend a lot of money on tech...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases CAN I...? and COULD I...?In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, “Can I...?” This is how you start a question when you're maybe at a restaurant ordering something or maybe asking if you can do something. This morning I went to this little bakery and I got a coffee and I said, “Can I have a decaf coffee with cream and sugar?” I also got this really yummy croissant here with egg, cheese and bacon....

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases LIKE CRAP and PIECE OF CRAPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase like crap. Now, sometimes when you're learning English, you need to learn phrases, not to use them, but just so you recognize them if you read them or hear them somewhere. This is a very vulgar way of speaking, a kind of a informal, rude way of speaking, but we do use this phrase, I use this phrase, and it just means something li...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MESS UP and TO MESS AROUNDIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "to mess up." When you mess up, it simply means that you've made a mistake. Sometimes I mess up when I'm driving. Just the other day, I was driving to see my brother-in-law and I messed up. I forgot to get off the highway at the proper exit. I messed up. I made a mistake. Sometimes people do this when they're at work. Sometime...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S BEEN A BLAST and I HAD A BLAST- In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the phrase, it's been a blast. I am Bob the Canadian, and I call myself Bob the Canadian, because I'm Bob and I'm Can, and I'm, and I'm Canadian. I just wanted to pretend I was you for a second.- Who am I then?- You're just some little small YouTuber named Brent.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"If you ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases UP AND AROUND and TO GO AROUND IN CIRCLESIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase up and around. This is a phrase that we use after someone has maybe been sick or in the hospital, maybe they've had surgery, and when they are starting to feel better, eventually, they will be up and around. So you might say to someone, "Oh, so Uncle Joe was in the hospital. How long before he'll be up and around?" ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A NICE SET OF WHEELS and ALL SETIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “a nice set of wheels”. Sometimes we even say “a new set of wheels”, and this simply means a car or another type of vehicle. Sometimes you drive a car and eventually you need to buy a new one, and so you might say to someone, I need a new set of wheels. You can see I'm in front of a car dealership. I thought this would be a g...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ON TOP OF THAT and TO TOP IT ALL OFFIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "On top of that". This is a phrase we use when we're talking about something that's in addition to something else. I could say this, "That I have to renew my license, and on top of that, I have to renew my license plates." So I've mentioned one thing and then I've mentioned another thing that I have to do. I could say th...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SQUEEZE IN and TO SQUEEZE OUTIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to squeeze in”. Right now I am squeezing in an English lesson. I have just finished bringing one of my kids to work and I finished going for a walk. I actually ran a little bit too. And I have just a minute or two before I have to be somewhere else, so I thought I would squeeze in an English lesson. When you say “squeeze in”...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases JUST HAPPEN TO and IT HAPPENS TO THE BEST OF USIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “just happen to”. This is something you say if you just happen to have something. I'm having trouble thinking about how to describe this term without using this term. Let me give you some examples and that might help. Let's say you said, hey, I need to open this box. Do you have a knife? I could say, hey, I jus...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO NOT SIT WELL WITH and SIT BACK AND ENJOY!In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase “to not sit well with”. And we almost always use this... I think we always use this in the negative. When something doesn't sit well with you, it means you don't like it. Maybe your boss says that you have to work Saturday and that just doesn't sit well with you. That means that you're not excited about working on...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases NO NEED TO and TO NEED TO GOIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, No need to. This is just a quick way to start a sentence that we would normally start by saying, “There is no need to.” But often in English, in spoken English, we'll say “No need to...” instead. Maybe you're going to a party and you say, Hey, should I bring some food? The person might respond and say, No need to bring food. The...