Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE DEAD OF NIGHT and THE DEAD OF WINTER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the dead of night. When we say the dead of night, we mean the very middle of the night. Like the darkest point of the night. When I go to bed at 10 o'clock at night, sometimes I get up in the middle of the night, be...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AS WHITE AS SNOW and SNOWBIRD In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, 'as white as snow'. When something is really, really white, when it's pure white, we describe it as being 'as white as snow'. Can you see why? Snow is incredibly white. This morning, when I woke up, I look...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HAVE AN IMPACT and TO HAVE A HAND IN In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to have an impact. Normally you have an impact on someone. You can have an impact on something as well, but the most common usage of this phrase is to say that you have an impact on someone, or someone has an impact on y...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE and DOG-TIRED In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, let sleeping dogs lie. This is a phrase we use to talk about a situation where there was a conflict or an argument, and it's now settled down, and there's a bit of peace. And then, if someone wants to start arguing a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A SLIM CHANCE and BY ANY CHANCE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "a slim chance". When you say there is a slim chance that something will happen, it means that it might happen. It means that there's a chance it won't happen, but there's also a chance that it will happe...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SECOND-GUESS YOURSELF and GUESS WHAT? In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to second-guess yourself. When you second-guess yourself, it means you've made a decision, but now you're doubting whether that was a good decision. Right now, I'm wearing a jacket, and it's a little...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ON PURPOSE and BY ACCIDENT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "on purpose." When you do something on purpose, it means that you meant to do it. It means that you planned to do it. You might have noticed that there was no short English lesson a couple of days ago. This past Monday, ther...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FLAT AS A PANCAKE and FLAT BROKE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, flat as a pancake. Do you know what a pancake is? A pancake is something that we fry in a frying pan. It's made out of flour, and water, and butter, and I'm sure there's sugar in it too. And it's very, very...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms TIME CHANGE and INTERNAL CLOCK In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term time change. We just had time change this past weekend. Time change happens in countries that observe Daylight Savings Time. We have one time during the summer months, and then mid fall, we shift our clocks, and then we have a one-hou...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MAKE LIGHT OF and TO FEEL LIGHT-HEADED In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to make light of. When you make light of a situation, it means you are less serious than you should be in that situation. You might say things that you even think are funny when something serious has just happened, you...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HASTE MAKES WASTE and WASTE NOT WANT NOT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, haste makes waste. This is an English saying, you could even call it an English proverb, that means that if you do something really quickly, it's not always the best way to do it. Sometimes haste makes waste. When...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET DUMPED and DOWN IN THE DUMPS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get dumped, or to dump someone. When you get dumped, it means you were in a relationship, and the person you were in a relationship with told you they didn't want to be with you anymore. So we would say that you got d...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BANK ON and TO BREAK THE BANK In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to bank on. When you can bank on something, it means you can be sure that it will happen. Let me think of an example. Maybe when your favorite athlete plays your favorite sport, you can bank on the fact that they will score a goa...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I CAVED and MAN CAVE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, I caved. When we say I caved in English, it means that you didn't wanna do something, but then you changed your mind. Here's a good example. You can see that the letters are very nice and dark and black on here because I caved. I...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE WORKS and IN THE WORKS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the works. When you ask for the works when you're ordering something, it means you want every possible option that's possible. If you go to a restaurant and you order a hamburger and they say, "What would you like on it...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TIME TO and TO FIND THE TIME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase time to. This is actually a short form of the phrase it's time to, or it is time to, and we use this whenever something needs to be done, or when we're telling people to do something. A lot of times in the morning, I yell...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BEATS ME and BEAT-UP In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase beats me. This is actually a really simple phrase. It simply means I don't know. I remember once I was at a school event, and there was a car in the parking lot, and the alarm was going off, the car was going beep, beep, beep. And my b...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BACK-BREAKING WORK and TO BREAK OUT In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English term back-breaking work. Now, this is your back, and it's something that gets really sore when you do back-breaking work. Back-breaking work is any kind of physical labor. If you see behind me here, we have the dahlia patch, and it...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I'M GAME and GAME PLAN In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, I'm game. This is a phrase that we use when we are willing to do something, when we agree to do something. It could be a game, but it could be almost anything else. If my brother says to me, "Hey, do you want to go to the s...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BUMP INTO SOMEONE and TO BUMP HEADS WITH SOMEONE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To bump into someone." Now, this can mean to literally bump into someone. When you're standing in line and you're standing really close, if you step forward without looking, you might bum...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I'VE HAD IT and TO HAVE IT OUT WITH SOMEONE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, I've had it! Now simply used, this simply means that you have had something. If someone says, have you had pizza? You could say I've had it and I liked it. But we also use this phrase to describe a situ...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FIT IN and TO BE FIT FOR In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase: to fit in. When you fit in, it means that you are compatible with another group of people. It means that you have some of the same interests. When I meet people who I don't know, I don't know if I'm going to fit in unt...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases EVERYONE AND THEIR DOG and THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, everyone and their dog. Now, this is a funny phrase that we use to talk about a situation where there are a lot of people. Maybe there's a new store opening in town. And when I go there, it's really...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO WEAR OUT YOUR WELCOME and WEAR AND TEAR In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to wear out your welcome. When you wear out your welcome, it means you're visiting someone and you've stayed longer than they wanted you to stay. Here's a good example. If I was to visit my sister, and...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RUN THE RISK and AT RISK In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to run the risk. This is a phrase we use when we're talking about something that might happen if you don't do something else. Here's a good example. When you get in a vehicle, if you don't put your seatbelt on, yo...