Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PICTURE SOMETHING and TO GET THE PICTURE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to picture something. We also sometimes say to picture someone. When you picture something, or when you picture someone, it means you close your eyes, well you don't have to close your eyes, but it means you can...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO CHANGE YOUR TUNE and TO TUNE OUT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to change your tune. When you change your tune about something, it means you change how you think about it. Here's a good example. Maybe when you were a student in school, you didn't like doing homework, but you no...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WITH FLYING COLOURS and WHEN PIGS FLY! In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To pass with flying colors." When you take a test and if you get almost every single answer right, if you get almost every single answer correct, we would say that you were able to pass the test with flying colo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English Phrases TO LOSE YOUR SHIRT and TO LOSE TOUCH In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to lose your shirt. Now, this can mean that you've actually lost your shirt. Maybe you went to the beach and you took your shirt off and then you lost it and you don't know where it is anymore. But we also use the...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE IN HOT WATER and TO MUDDY THE WATER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be in hot water. We sometimes also say to get in hot water. When you are in hot water, you are in trouble. When you lie to someone and then they find out that you lied to them, you might be in hot water. If I was to...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms FUNNY BUSINESS and FUNNY FEELING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term funny business. Funny business is a kind of behavior that we don't like. Let me give you a few examples. Sometimes when I'm driving in my car, in the back of the van, I want my children to behave. I don't want any fun...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English Phrases TO BEAR THE BRUNT OF and BEAR WITH ME In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to bear the brunt of." When you bear the brunt of something, it means you get the worst part of the situation, or the worst part of what's happening. Here's a little story. When I was younger, I took my...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A WAKE-UP CALL and WAKE UP! In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, a wake up call. Now a wake up call can mean a phone call that they give you when you stay at a hotel to wake you up in the morning. But we also use this phrase to talk about something in life that happens that reminds you to do somet...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HOLD ON and TO GET A HOLD OF In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, hold on. There's two ways that I use this phrase most commonly when I speak English. the first would be, if I was driving a snowmobile and you were sitting behind me, I would probably say, hold on before I started to move forwa...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English Phrases TO FALL FLAT and TO FALL INTO PLACE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to fall flat. When something falls flat, it means that it doesn't work out. It means that it doesn't happen. Last spring when COVID was starting, many people knew that their travel plans were going to fall flat, bec...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY and TIME WILL TELL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, Rome wasn't built in a day. I think you're familiar with the city of Rome. It took a long time to build the city of Rome, and we use this phrase whenever we talk about something that isn't going...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases NOTHING MUCH and NOTHING REALLY In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "nothing much." This is a phrase that we use to answer questions like this. Hey Bob, what are you doing this weekend? Nothing much. Hey Bob, what are you doing today? Nothing much. It simply means that you don't h...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BOOT and TO BOOT OUT In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to boot. This is a phrase that we add to the end of a sentence sometimes, and it means in addition to. So I could say this, it's windy out today and it might rain to boot. Or I could say I bought a new camera and they gave me a came...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WHAT'S NEW? and WHAT ELSE IS NEW? In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, what's new? Today was the first day that I went back to work after many, many weeks of being at home. And the first question someone asked me was this. They said, "Hey, Bob, what's new?" In English, wh...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English Phrase SUPER DUPER and the word SUPER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, super duper. Now, this is kind of a funny couple of words. We use this when we want to emphasize something. Like, this morning, I was super duper excited to do a live stream. By the way, I'm recording this on Saturday because...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I CAN'T HELP MYSELF and HELP YOURSELF! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase I can't help myself. This is a phrase that we say when we can't resist doing something, when we just have to do something. Sometimes at work, people will bring yummy snacks to school. Maybe they'll brin...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms A TRIPLE THREAT and A DOUBLE WHAMMY In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term, a triple threat. A triple threat is a term we use to describe someone who's good at three things. If you think about a hockey player, if I was to describe a hockey player as being a triple threat, it would mean that they&ap...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL KINDS OF and KIND OF In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, all kinds of. When we say all kinds of in English, we simply mean that there were a lot of something. If I say I went to the grocery store, and there were all kinds of people there, it means that there were a lot of people at the groce...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WHAT MAKES SOMEONE TICK and TO TICK SOMEONE OFF  In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "what makes someone tick." When we talk about what makes someone tick, in English, we talk about what makes them do the things they do or what makes them want to do the things that they do. Sometimes i...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MAKE UP and TO MAKE OUT In this English lesson I wanted to help you understand three meanings of the phrase, to make up. There's probably more, but we should get started if I have to explain three in less than a minute, the first meaning of this verb is to tell a story that isn't true. Often kids will make up a story...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S ABOUT TIME! and AHEAD OF TIME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "It's about time." This is a phrase that we say to someone when they finally arrive somewhere, or when they finally do something that they should have done. Let's imagine that you're waiting for...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms RAIN OR SHINE and MAKE HAY WHILE THE SUN SHINES In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, rain or shine. In English, if you say that something is going to happen rain or shine, it means it's going to happen if it rains, it's going to happen if it's sunny. It doesn't matter what the w...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I'M TORN UP and I'M TORN In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, I'm torn up. If you say in English, I'm torn up or I'm torn up about something, it means that you are emotionally sad. That you're upset that you're just feeling really, really bad about something. If...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WHERE YOU AT? and WHERE IT'S AT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, were you at? This is a slang phrase of asking the question are you. Let's imagine my brother is out driving his car and it breaks down on the side of the road. He might phone me and say, hey can you come pick me up, my...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms FROM SCRATCH and STORE-BOUGHT In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English term from scratch. When you make something from scratch, it means you make it from the basic ingredients. In our house, we have an oven, and the oven broke, and then when we got the oven fixed, my kids started to make cookies again from scratch....