Bob's Short English Lessons

In this English lesson, I wanted help you learn the English phrase, to horse around. This is a phrase we use usually when we're talking about children who are just acting all crazy. In fact, I remember as a kid, my parents often saying to me, stop horsing around. So when you horse around, it means as a kid, you jump around, you make lots of noise. Maybe you scream a little bit. And usually pa...

Read along to practice your English and to learn about the Canadian Holiday VICTORIA DAY and the English phrase LONG WEEKEND In this English lesson, I wanted to talk about today. Today is Victoria Day. This is a holiday in Canada. I have a holiday today. It's kind of nice, which is why I'm making this lesson this morning instead of yesterday because yesterday we had a little bit of a par...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I HAVE TO HAND IT TO YOU and TO HAND IN In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, I have to hand it to you. We also sometimes say, "I gotta hand it to you," or "I've gotta hand it to you," or "I have to hand it to you." There's a couple of different variations, b...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DIG UP SOME DIRT and TO DIG IN YOUR HEELS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to dig up some dirt. When you dig up some dirt on someone, it means you look for things that they've done in the past that weren't good things to do. A lot of times, people who are running for office, if th...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HAVE A TASTE FOR and TO DO SOMETHING TASTEFULLY In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to have a taste for. When you have a taste for something, it means that you like it. And it can mean food. It can be used when talking about food, let's say that I used to only eat standard North American f...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GIVE SOMEONE A HEADS UP and TO FILL SOMEONE IN ON In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to give someone a heads up." When you give someone a heads up, it means that you tell them something that maybe they weren't aware of. A good example would be this, a couple of weeks ago, some...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO STRIKE ME THAT or TO STRIKE ME AS and TO STRIKE A BALANCE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it strikes me that. This is a phrase that I used yesterday a couple of times when I was talking about the emojis that I like to choose, I said, well, I just choose emojis that strike me as cool. When...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP SOMETHING STRAIGHT and TO KEEP AT SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To keep something straight," or, "To keep things straight." When you want to keep something straight or you want to keep things straight, it's the opposite of being confused. Sometim...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP AN EYE ON and TO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to keep an eye on. In English, if you are going to keep an eye on someone or keep an eye on something, it means you're going to watch it. A good example is this. If you put a pan of water on the stove to boil the...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GO OFF THE RADAR and TO BE ON SOMEONE'S RADAR In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to go off the radar. When someone goes off the radar, it means they kind of disappear for a little bit. And I kind of just did that. So I do want to apologize to all of you. On my bigger channel normally the...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET CARRIED AWAY and TO GET RILED UP In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase to get carried away. When you get carried away with something, it means you get so excited about it, you don't actually think straight. You start to do things you normally wouldn't do. Probably the best example of th...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S MY TREAT or TO TREAT SOMEONE TO SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "it's my treat." A couple of days ago we looked at the English phrase "it's on me" and "it's my treat" means the same thing. If you say to someone, "It's...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase IT'S ON ME and THAT'S NEWS TO ME In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it's on me. If someone says to you, it's on me, it means they're going to pay for something. Sometimes this happens when you go out to eat with someone and as you're getting out your wallet at the en...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RAMP UP and TO SCALE BACK In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to ramp up. This is actually a phrasal verb that means to increase production. Probably the best example of this in the world right now would be the companies that are making vaccines. They are trying to ramp up their production. T...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases NOT ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE and TO CRACK A JOKE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "not all it's cracked up to be." When we say that something is not all it's cracked up to be, it means that it's not as fun, it's not as good, it just isn't what you thoug...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase GET ON TOP OF THINGS and STAY ON TOP OF THINGS In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "Get on top of things." When you are busy in life sometimes you get behind. You know you have a lot of things to do and you don't have enough time to do them, and then you get behind. And that's...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TOP DOG and SECOND BANANA / FIDDLE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase top dog. If you are the top dog somewhere, it means you have the most power or you are the best. If you think about a sports team, for example, the person on the team who scores the most points every game and all season, we wo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases DOWN TO A SCIENCE and IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase down to a science. When you have something down to a science, it means you have every step of a process figured out and you do it smoothly and efficiently. When you have something down to a science, it means yo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL SET and TO BE SET ON SOMETHING In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, all set. All set is something we say when we are totally ready to do something. Let's say that I'm heading out for work and I'm trying to make sure I have everything, Jen can say to me, hey, are you all set? And...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BREAK IT DOWN and TO BREAK UP In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To break it down." If you say to someone that you're going to break something down for them, or if you're going to break it down for them, it means you're going to explain how to do something in smaller...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase YOU GOT ME In this English lesson I wanted to help you understand the English phrase, "You got me". When you see this phrase and it is a question, it basically means "Do you understand me?" If I saw some students running in the hallway, I could say, "Hey, if I see you running again, "you'll need...

Read along to learn the English phrases TOO LITTLE TOO LATE and BETTER LATE THAN NEVER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase too little too late. When we say that somebody does something and that it's too little too late, it means that they're not doing enough, and they're starting to do it later than they should have. Many people in Ontario, Canada r...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SELF ISOLATE and CONTACT TRACING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase self-isolate. When you self-isolate, it means you stay home, you do not go out, and you do not see other people. You are in self isolation. When you are told to self-isolate, you go into self-isolation. I am currently in self is...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FEELING DRAINED and BRAIN DRAIN In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "feeling drained." When you are feeling drained, it means you have no energy. It's the opposite of saying that you're feeling energetic. I was feeling drained when I came home from work today but then I had su...

 Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MISS THE BOAT and TO BE IN THE SAME BOAT In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to miss the boat. In English if we say that someone has missed the boat it means that there was an opportunity for them in life and somehow they missed out on it. Here's a great example. When I was younger, a fri...