Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TUCKERED OUT and BENT OUT OF SHAPE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase tuckered out. Tuckered out is just another way of saying that someone is really, really tired, or saying that they are exhausted. We used to use this phrase a lot when our kids were little. At the end of the day, if we let&apo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BLEEP OUT and TO BE OUT OF SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to bleep out. Have you ever been watching a TV show or a movie and then sometimes the person says a bad word, like fu*% or sh%#, and instead of hearing the word, you just hear a beep, like I just put in this video? That&...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET THE WRONG IDEA and A ROUGH IDEA In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To get the wrong idea." When you get the wrong idea about someone, it means that you've seen them do something and so you think they do that all the time. You kind of judge them. Here's a good example....

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET SOME SHUT-EYE and TO HAVE A HUNCH In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get some shut-eye. Now this is your eye, and this is your eyes shut. And when we say that you need to get some shut-eye, all we really mean is that you need some sleep. Let's say that it's been a long day, a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases GOOD TO GO and READY TO ROLL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase good to go. In English, when you say you are good to go, it means you are ready. Sometimes when Jen and I are leaving for a trip, Jen will say, are you ready to go? And I'll say, yep, I'm good to go. I'm all ready to...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUT INTO MOTION and TO GO THROUGH THE MOTIONS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to put into motion. In English, when you say that you are going to put something into motion, it means you're going to start doing it. Usually it means that you have some new plans, or new ideas that you&ap...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE SCARED STIFF and TO BE BORED STIFF In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be scared stiff. When you're scared stiff, it just means that you're really, really scared. It means something's happened, and you went kind of like this, like your whole body is stiff as a board. Now I...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HOLD DOWN THE FORT and TO HOLD OFF In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to hold down the fort." Now a fort is like an old building, like in history when you study when they first settled in Canada, they built forts, these big places where they could stay safely. But nowadays, when we...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO STAY PUT and TO STAY OVER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to stay put. When you stay put, it means you stay in one location, and you don't move. I'm using this phrase, because I heard it while I was watching the news last night. They said that the truckers in Ottawa are going to...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MAKE A MENTAL NOTE and ON A SIDE NOTE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to make a mental note. When you make a mental note of something, it means you make an extra effort to remember it. Sorry if I'm squinting a lot today, it's brighter out than it looks. I should've worn my s...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S UNDERHANDED and HANDS DOWN In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English term that's underhanded. This is a phrase we would use to describe something that's kind of sneaky, maybe even a little bit illegal. When something is underhanded, it means someone's doing something they're not...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BACKHANDED COMPLIMENT and TO FISH FOR COMPLIMENTS In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English term backhanded compliment. A compliment is something you say to someone that's kind of nice. Like if you said, "Your haircut looks good. Your new haircut looks good." Or, "Wow, you look really good...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO THROW SOMEONE UNDER THE BUS and THE WHEELS FELL OFF THE BUS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to throw someone under the bus. Now, this sounds horrible, but it's not something you actually do. You would not actually throw a person under a bus, but if you and someone else do something,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN CHARGE and TO GET A CHARGE OUT OF In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, in charge of. When you are in charge of something, it means you're the boss, it means you're the person who has authority. As a teacher, I am in charge of my classroom. I am in charge of the students who are in tha...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO LEND A HAND and A SHOW OF HANDS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to lend a hand. Sometimes you see someone trying to do something. Maybe they're trying to get their groceries into their car in the grocery store parking lot, and they maybe look like they need some help, and then you co...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EASE BACK INTO and TO BE AT EASE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to ease back into. when you ease back into something, it means that you were doing it and you stopped doing it. And you're going to slowly start doing it again. You're not going to jump in with both feet and start d...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BACK AT IT and BACK IN THE DAY In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase back at it. You can see here I have the entire sentence, I'm back at it. When you say you're back at something it means that you were doing it and then you stopped doing it and now you're doing it again. I was defini...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET AN EARFUL and TO GIVE AN EARFUL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "to get an earful". When you get an earful, it means that you've done something wrong. and someone in authority over you, someone like your parents or someone who's in charge of you, tells you that you...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases LEFT, RIGHT, and CENTRE and TAKE CENTRE STAGE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase left, right and center. We use these three words, you know, you have your left hand, your right hand, and then there's obviously the center of something, but we use these three words, we use this phrase to talk...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OF LATE and MY LATE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, of late. Now, this is just another way in English of saying lately. It's another way to talk about something that's been happening in the recent past. I could say something like this, I've really been enjoying teaching of lat...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases DON'T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET and A NEST EGG In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket." This phrase means don't rely on one source of money for your life or don't rely on one thing in order to have a livelihood. Here's...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GO ON AND ON and TO GO BALLISTIC In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to go on and on. This is a phrase we use sometimes when we're talking about someone who talks a lot and won't stop talking. You could say, oh, whenever I talk to him, he has a tendency to go on and on. He just talks...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DROP EVERYTHING and EVERYTHING COMES TO THOSE WHO WAIT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to drop everything. When you say to someone that you're going to drop everything, it means you're going to stop what you're doing, so that you can go and do something else. If my mom calle...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO WALK AWAY WITH SOMETHING and TO GET AWAY WITH SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to walk away with something". Now this phrase has two meanings. The first meaning means to win something easily. Maybe if you think about your favorite football team, if they won a game eight...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S GETTING OLD and OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "That's getting old!" Now I should mention, I think I did this phrase a couple of years ago, but I did just hear this the other day again. It's something we say when someone tells the sam...