Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EDGE OUT and A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to edge out. When you edge someone out, it means you pass them. Maybe at work you and a colleague are both trying to get a promotion, but there's only one spot. And maybe because you know a bit more, you can edge out yo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words SCHEMOZZLE and BAMBOOZLE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the word schemozzle. When there is a schemozzle, it means that something is a mess. Let's say you're at work and you need four truckloads of, I don't know, flour in order to make bread that day. Maybe you work at a bread factory and only one...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BOTTOM OUT and FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to bottom out. So whenever something is going down, like the price of a stock on the stock market, eventually it will bottom out and then it will start to go back up again. So to bottom out means kind of to hit the...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CARROT AND THE STICK and TO STICK YOUR NECK OUT Sorry, I had to put my glove on using my mouth. It's a Canadian technique. I think I showed you that before. But super cold out here today. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the carrot and the stick. So the carrot and the stick refers to...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM and TO STORM OFF In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the phrase the calm before the storm. Now, you can use this literally to talk about the fact that there's going to be a storm later today. But it's actually quite calm and peaceful out here right now. And that's actually true....

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO LAY LOW, TO LIE LOW, and A LOW BLOW In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrases to lay low or to lie low. This is one of the situations where we use lie and lay in the same way, and it means to hide. Usually you will hear these phrases if you're watching a show where the police are chasing some...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases YOU'RE SEEING THINGS and SEEING IS BELIEVING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase you're seeing things. We say this to someone when they describe something and you find it really hard to believe. If we were driving along and Jen said, I just saw 50 airplanes in the sky, I'd probably...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TAKE SIDES and FROM ALL SIDES In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to take sides. Now I'll tell you this. It's actually better to not take sides. When you take sides, it means you agree with one person when two people are arguing. So let's say two of my kids are arguing, I usuall...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SINK IN and SINK OR SWIM In this English lesson, I want to try and not freeze my butt off and also teach you the English phrase to sink in. When something is allowed to sink in, it means that you hear it and eventually you will understand it. Sometimes when you're in school, the teacher will teach a lesson and it might ta...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrase HAPPY NEW YEAR and the word GINGERLY Well, in this English lesson I just want to say Happy New Year. I do have another phrase or word here to teach you. There's a couple couple geese flying over. They're probably excited because of the water behind me, but Happy New Year. This is not what it normally looks like on Januar...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English term NO-SHOW and the phrase TO SHOW UP In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term no show. When you say someone is a no show, it means you planned to meet with them somewhere and they didn't come. Maybe you and a friend are going out for coffee and you go to the coffee shop at the time that you said you were...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS and MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it's none of your business. So I was walking out of class today, and there were two students in the hall. And the one student said, what did you get on your math test? And the other student said,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HIT THE SPOT and IN A TIGHT SPOT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to hit the spot. Sometimes you are craving something. Sometimes you really want something to eat or to drink. And then after you eat or drink it, you say, oh, that hit the spot. When something hits the spot, it means it satis...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUSH THROUGH and TO PUSH IT TOO FAR In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to push through. This past weekend, Jen was sick and I was a little bit sick, but I decided to push through. I took one day off work and I probably went back to work one day too early because I decided to push through. Whe...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN A LITTLE BIT and IT'S GOING TO BE A WHILE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in a little bit. Now, when we say in a little bit, we mean a small amount. And we can be talking about time or an actual thing. Here's a good example. Let's say that my mom is coming over to visit and...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English ending -WISE and the term WISE GUY In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn how to use the suffix wise. A suffix is something that comes at the end of a word and when we use wise it means in relation to something. So if I was to say this, temperature- wise, it's a really nice day today. If I look in my wallet though, money...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BY DAY, BY NIGHT, and NIGHT OWL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrases by day and by night. I'm a teacher by day and a YouTuber by night. So when you use by day and by night, you're describing when something happens. You often hear this in a superhero movie, Superman is Clark Kent by day...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases I BEG TO DIFFER and IT BEGS THE QUESTION In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase I beg to differ. This is a phrase when someone says something and we don't agree with them, we might start by saying, I beg to differ. If someone was to say, I think that, let's see, France has the best footbal...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RUB OFF ON and TO RUB SOMEONE'S NOSE IN IT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase To rub off on. Now we use this phrase to describe when the behavior of one person starts to be mimicked or copied by another person. Sometimes one person can rub off on another person. So here's a good exa...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BAD ATTITUDE and POSITIVE ATTITUDE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term bad attitude. If someone has a bad attitude, it means they think something's going to go badly before it even starts or even while it's happening. Here's a good example. Maybe you go to watch your favorite sports...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MORE OR LESS and LESS IS MORE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase more or less. In English, when we say more or less, it means almost or sort of. If you asked me if I was done cleaning my house, I might say more or less. That means I have most of the work done. Maybe there's a couple little...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FALL COLOURS and BLACK AND WHITE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase fall colors. If you live in a country where the leaves on the trees turn a different color in the fall, in the autumn, we call those the fall colors. I'm not sure if you can see behind me, this tree is still green, but way...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases TO BREEZE THROUGH and TO SHOOT THE BREEZE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to breeze through. When you breeze through something, it means you do it quickly and easily. At school, I had a whole stack of student work that I needed to look at. Well, that truck's pretty loud. I'm not sure if you...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms DOUBLE WHAMMY and DOUBLE DOUBLE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term double whammy. When we say something is a double whammy, it means two bad things happened right in a row. And I have a good example for you. I was really busy at work, and then when I was done being busy at work, I got sick. I got a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases TO PLUG AWAY and TO PULL THE PLUG In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to plug away. When you plug away at something, it means you work out it slowly and methodically until it's done. It doesn't necessarily mean it's something exciting, either. Sometimes you plug away at things that you don...