Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expression MY BAD and the phrase FROM BAD TO WORSE In this English lesson, I'd like to help you learn the English expression my bad. In English, if I say my bad to someone, it's an informal way of saying I'm sorry, or an informal way of saying it's my fault. If I was to be walking through the kitchen and I accidentall...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase OR SO and the suffix -ISH In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "or so." The best way for me to explain this phrase is to use it in a sentence. Let's say I was going to the store and as I'm leaving Jen says, "Hey, I need some apples." I could say, "How many apples d...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN COMMON and THE COMMON COLD In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in common. When you have something in common with someone, it means you share the same experience or you share the same characteristics, here's a good example. One of the things that Jen and I have in common is that we both gre...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY and NEXT DOOR In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, window of opportunity. A window of opportunity is a period of time. It's an amount of time. Here's an example, I make these videos late in the day, but the days are getting really short right now because it is winte...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WIDE OPEN and WIDE AWAKE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase wide open. We use this to describe something that is open, but that's all the way open. Once I came home from work and the front door to my house was wide open. Someone had left the house and they forgot to close the door, so the d...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases DUE TO and IN DUE TIME In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase due to. A little while ago, in a comment on a previous video a viewer named Hassane, asked me to talk about the word due. Due to means that you are doing something because of something. Due to the bright sun and the snow reflecting the lig...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases STRIKE UP and STRIKE ONE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, strike up. We use this phrase mostly when we're talking about starting a conversation with someone. If I go somewhere and I see someone I know on the other side of the room, I might walk over and strike up a conversation with them...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SPOKEN FOR and YOU'RE SPEAKING MY LANGUAGE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "spoken for." If something is "spoken for," it means that someone has claimed it or someone has said that they want it. Here's a good example. If I had two cookies on a plate, and if my so...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases KEEP UP and KEEP OUT In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, keep up. When you tell someone to keep up it means you want them to go the same speed as you. Often times when I'm walking somewhere my children walk a little bit more slowly than I do, and I'm often saying to them, try to keep up...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English term HUSH-HUSH and the phrase THE LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English term hush-hush. If I say something to you and then say, don't tell anyone else, it's hush-hush. Or if I say it's very hush-hush right now, it means that you shouldn't be telling it to someone else e...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE PRICE YOU PAY and PAY THE PRICE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "the price you pay." When we talk about price, we're not always talking about money. Sometimes we say things like this, "When you are a rock star and you go out, there are usually lots of people at the end...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases UP TO ME and UP IN ARMS   In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, up to me. If something is up to me, it means that I get to decide it. If something is up to you, it means you get to decide it. Right now, if I wanted to go eat in a restaurant, it's not up to me. The government has said that we&a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TOY WITH and LIKE A KID WITH A NEW TOY In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "toy with." When you toy with something, it means you are thinking about it. Sometimes I toy with the idea of not working. I toy with the idea of maybe learning a new language. When you toy with an idea, it me...

Read long to learn the English Phrases NOWHERE TO BE FOUND and IN PLAIN SIGHT In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, nowhere to be found. When something is nowhere to be found, it means you can't find it. I'm not sure why we don't just say that we can't find it, but we often will say that it's nowhere to be found. Sometimes when I'm leav...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S NEVER TOO LATE and RUNNING LATE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it's never too late. This is a phrase that we say when someone thinks maybe they're too old, or they just don't feel like starting something because they don't think they'll get done on time. A...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT SLIPPED MY MIND and ON MY MIND In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "It slipped my mind." When you say it slipped my mind, what you're really saying is that you forgot something. Let's imagine that it was my mom's birthday yesterday. It wasn't, but let's just...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases GRASPING AT STRAWS and THE LAST STRAW In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, grasping at straws. When you are grasping at straws, you want something to be true or you want something to be right but you know you have very little chance of proving it or getting it. Here's a great example. Let&apo...

Read long to learn the English Phrases BUILD SOMEONE UP and TEAR SOMEONE DOWN In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase build someone up. When you build someone up, it means you say nice things about them. It means you say things that make them feel good about themselves. When students in my classes do really good work, I tell them. I say things like, "You did a go...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ENOUGH ALREADY and ENOUGH IS ENOUGH In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "Enough already." This is a phrase that we say sometimes loudly when we're frustrated and we want something to stop. A great example would be when my kids are fighting, sometimes I'll say, "Enough alre...

Read long to learn the English Phrases DO YOUR HOMEWORK and WORKED UP  In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase do your homework. Now, you might think that homework is something that children do at night after the school day is over, and that's true, but we use the phrase do your homework to talk about other things as well. Let's say you're going to buy...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HAVE IN MIND and DO YOU MIND In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "have in mind." We usually use this phrase in two questions. You might hear the question, what do you have in mind? And you might hear the question, who do you have in mind? Here's an example. Let's say Jen says,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FARTING AROUND and OLD FART  In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, farting around. Now, I'm not gonna talk about what the word fart means. You'll have to look that up. It's something that our bodies do sometimes when we have lots of gas. But what I wanna talk about is the phrase fart...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MAKE UP MY MIND and GREAT MINDS THINK ALIKE In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase make up my mind. When you're making a decision, you're also trying to make up your mind. Sometimes when I'm trying to decide what I want to make for supper, I have trouble making up my mind. So I've...

Read long to learn the English Phrases ME TIME and PEACE AND QUIET In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase me time. Me time is how we refer to time spent by yourself. I love my kids, I love Jen, but sometimes I need some me time. I'm actually feeling that quite a bit today. When you say me time, you mean time spent just sitting by yourself somewhere, maybe just s...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THINK IT OVER and GET BACK TO ME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase "think it over." When you propose something to someone, sometimes you want an answer right away, but sometimes you want people to think it over. When you say that people think something over, it means that they take so...