Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases STEP IT UP and TO STEP ON SOMEONE'S TOES In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, step it up. If you tell someone they need to step it up, it means that they're working at this level and they need to work harder. At work sometimes my boss will say to us, "Hey, everybody, you need to st...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases JOIN THE CLUB and MIND IF I JOIN YOU? In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase, join the club. "Join the club," is kind of a funny thing that we say when someone is having something happen to them that isn't enjoyable, and we're experiencing the same thing. So here's a good example...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases RECIPE FOR DISASTER and DISASTER STRIKES In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "recipe for disaster." Now, a disaster is a really bad thing that can happen and a recipe is something you use when you bake something or make something in the kitchen. So a recipe for disaster is a situation w...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PULL YOUR WEIGHT and TO PULL A FAST ONE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to pull your weight. When you pull your weight, it means that you are on a team and you are doing the same amount of work as the rest of the team. Or you are working with a group of people and you do the same amount o...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT and HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, the customer is always right. Now this might seem like a funny sentence to you. It's something that businesses say in Canada because they want to make sure that they are doing a good job when the...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BRING SOMETHING TO THE TABLE and TO PUT YOUR CARDS ON THE TABLE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "to bring something to the table." If you say that someone brings something to the table, it means they have an ability that makes a team better or makes a group of people better. At w...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO STAMP OUT and TO PUT YOUR STAMP ON SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to stamp out. The most literal meaning of to stamp out is when you have a fire outside and you use your feet to stamp out the fire. You actually stomp on the fire, that's a different verb, but it means the s...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN DENIAL and TO DENY ONESELF In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be in denial. If someone is in denial about something, it means that there are a lot of facts that show that something is true, but they still don't believe it. There are a lot of people in the world that are in denial abou...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SORT SOMETHING OUT and OUT OF SORTS In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sort something out. This usually means that you need to understand a problem and then solve it. If my brother said to me, Hey, can you come over today and help me with something, I could respond and say, yes but not right a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FOR GOOD and AS GOOD AS IT GETS In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn a particular use of the English phrase "for good." In general terms, you can do things for good or for evil, but that's not the meaning I want to talk about today. We also use the English phrase "for good" to talk about some...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WITH IT and I'M WITH YOU In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, with it. When you are talking about a person and you say that person is with it, you mean that their brain is working really good and they are mentally competent. Here are some example sentences of the phrase, with it. I could say,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT MADE MY DAY and I'M NOT MADE OF MONEY In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase it made my day. If I say to someone, "It made my day," I'm saying that something made me really happy and something made me smile. Probably a great example would be this. If someone sent me a birthday...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases NAME DROPPING and TO DROP BY In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase name-dropping. Name-dropping, or to drop names, means that you mention famous people or popular people when you're having conversations with other people. So, name-dropping would be something like this. If I was having a convers...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WORTH YOUR WHILE and A WASTE OF TIME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, worth your while. If you say that something was worth your while, it means that you liked doing it and it was worth doing it. You got some benefit out of it. When I go for a walk every day, it's definitely worth my whi...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A REAL NAIL-BITER and TO HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, a real nail-biter. This is a phrase that we use to talk about a situation that makes you really, really nervous, or that causes a lot of anxiety. We usually use this when we're talking about a sports game,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases GET IT THROUGH YOUR HEAD and IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase: get it through your head. If I say to someone, you need to get it through your head, it means I want them to understand me and I want them to agree with me. As a parent, I often use this phrase. My kids ea...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL and SOUND ASLEEP In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase asleep at the wheel. When you are asleep at the wheel, it means you're not doing your job. It comes from the idea that when you're driving a vehicle, you should not fall asleep while you're holding onto the ste...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUT SOMETHING BEHIND YOU and TO PUT UP WITH In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to put something behind you. In English, when you put something behind you, you can physically put it behind you, but that's not what I'm here to teach you today. The meaning of the phrase I wanna teach y...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BACK IN THE SADDLE and TO BE SADDLED WITH In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "back in the saddle". You might've noticed that I haven't done an English lesson since Friday. I took a little break, but today I'm back in the saddle. When you say that you are back in the saddl...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HAPPY CHRISTMAS and MERRY CHRISTMAS So as you are learning English you'll probably hear people say Happy Christmas. And sometimes you'll hear people say Merry Christmas and you might be wondering which is the correct thing to say at Christmas time. Well, here's how it works. If you are learning British English, you...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HAVE CHEMISTRY and TO CLICK WITH In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to have chemistry. Now, chemistry is something you can study in school. You can take chemistry class. But this phrase actually has to do with relationships. When you go on a date with someone and if you really get along well,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases GET PAST and GET OVER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase get past. In its simplest form, it simply means to get by somebody or to get by something, to get to the other side. Maybe you're at a party and there is a snack table on the far side of the room. You might say to your friend, "I...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases EVERY SINGLE TIME and IT'S TIME TO... In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase every single time. When we use the phrase every single time, we're referring to something that happens over and over again and we add the word single when we talk about it to emphasize it. So you could say things...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English word UMPTEENTH and the phrase TO SLEEP LIKE BABY In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English word umpteenth. When you do something for the umpteenth time, it means that you've done it many, many times. You've done it so many times, you might not even remember how many times you have done it, so we use this wor...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases COMES WITH THE TERRITORY and TO COME ACROSS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, comes with the territory. When something comes with the territory. it means it's something that you can expect to be somewhere when you do something. Or, let me think here. There's gotta be a good example I...