Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms ON GOOD TERMS and ON BAD TERMS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase on good terms. When you're on good terms with someone, it means that when you talk to them, they're happy to see you. It means that if you see them in the street and they see you, they'll wave or they'll come and...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases "BETWEEN JOBS" and "ODD JOBS" In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase between jobs. When someone says they are between jobs, it means they don't currently have a job. It's kind of a nice way of saying that you're unemployed. If someone says they're between jobs, it mea...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SIT IN ON and TO SIT OUT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sit in on. It's a nice phrasal verb with two prepositions at the end, which makes it a little confusing. This means to go to something like a class to observe rather than take it. At work, sometimes the principal needs to che...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the phrases "no pun intended" and "pun intended" In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase no pun intended. Now, first, I should explain what a pun is. A pun is when you say something and it's funny because maybe one of the words has two meanings. So sometimes you say something and you realize aft...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FLIP-FLOP and TO DO AN ABOUT-FACE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English verb to flip flop. When you flip flop on something, it means you change your mind. Usually it means you change your mind to the exact opposite. Let's say your boss said everyone is going to get Friday off this week. And then t...

Read along to practice your English pronunciation of the words REACH and RICH, PEACH and PITCH In this English lesson, I wanted to talk about the difference in pronunciation between reach and rich. This is actually from a question that's from a viewer that I'm going to read later, but I'm going to answer the question first. At the beginning of the video, when you reach for something...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OUT OF REACH and OUT OF TOUCH In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out of reach. When something is out of reach, it simply means when you try to grab it, it's a little too far away. Sometimes in the kitchen, there are things on the top shelf and they are out of reach. You can't reach the...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases STUCK IN YOUR WAYS and TO BE STUCK ON SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase stuck in your ways. When you're stuck in your ways, it means you do certain things a certain way, and you will not change the way you do it. You are stuck in your ways. I'm stuck in my ways for some thin...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL DONE! and BEEN THERE, DONE THAT! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase all done. Now, you probably know this phrase. It's a pretty common one. It means that you've done a job and the job is finished. You are all done. I love it when I finish something and I can say that I'm all d...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO RUN OUT OF STEAM and TO BE STEAMED In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to run out of steam. When you run out of steam, it means you're really tired after working for a long time or maybe hiking all day or doing something that is a bit exhausting. Yesterday I worked really long. I worked t...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO THIN OUT and TO SPREAD YOURSELF TOO THIN In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to thin out. Now, this has two meanings or two ways that you can use this. One is kind of when you see something thin out and then you can actually thin something out. Let me explain. If you were to go up a mountain,...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DEAL WITH and A GOOD DEAL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to deal with. When you need to deal with something, it means you are going to take care of it. You are going to take responsibility for maybe solving something or doing something. Here are two examples. Let's say at school ther...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME and the term TWO-FACED In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English saying, two can play at that game. This is a phrase we use when someone does something, maybe not a nice thing, and you think to yourself, hmm, two can play at that game. And then you do something similar. Let's say yo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying IT'S NOT THE HEAT, IT'S THE HUMIDITY and the phrase TO BEAT THE HEAT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English saying, it's not the heat, it's the humidity. So it is really, really hot out here in Ontario, Canada right now. The last few days have been over 30 degrees celsius, and today it&a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET THE WRONG IDEA and TO BE IN THE WRONG In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get the wrong idea. Now, we usually use this to talk about when someone interprets what someone else says or does and they interpret it wrong. And it usually happens in a situation where someone is just being frie...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO CLUE IN and TO NOT HAVE A CLUE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to clue in. When you clue into something, it means you've heard some small facts about something and then suddenly you realize something has happened. Jen's at market right now and I'm home today. I think Oscar h...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THE SHORT TERM and THE LONG TERM In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase the short term. When we say the short term, we're talking about for the next day or the next few hours or the next week, like a short amount of time between now and a future situation. Sometimes we fix things for the short...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GO OFF ON SOMEONE and TO GO OFF In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to go off on someone. When you go off on someone, it means you get angry. It means you're annoyed with them. They've done something that has really, really annoyed you, and then you are angry. You might even be yelli...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO FEEL AT HOME and THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to feel at home. When you go somewhere else, somewhere that's not your home and you really enjoy it. You can describe it by saying that you feel at home. Sometimes when you go and stay at a friend's...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO HAVE A REPUTATION and YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDES YOU In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to have a reputation. When you have a reputation, it means that something about you, one of your character traits is so strong that people think about you when they think about that character trait. Let me t...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases ALL THE RAGE and ROAD RAGE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase all the rage. When something is all the rage, it means everyone is doing it or everyone is wearing it. In my world, people who are my age, it's all the rage to wear dad shoes. I'll put a picture here of what dad shoes look l...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases HOMEWARD BOUND and A STRAIGHT SHOT Hey, it's been a lot of fun hanging out with Brent. Today's the day where I might be leaving later today. I might be leaving tomorrow morning. I'm gonna be homeward bound. So homeward bound means that you are on your way home. Right, now, so do you think that you're going to...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FINALLY DONE and FINELY DONE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase finally done. Now, I used this phrase, actually, in yesterday's video. I think I said something like, the school year is finally done. And this simply means that something that you want to be finished has actually finished. And...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MAKES SENSE and DOESN'T MAKE SENSE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase makes sense. When something makes sense, it just means it's logical. If it's something that someone designed, they design it in a logical way. In a way that makes sense. There's a store in North America cal...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WHY THE LONG FACE? and THE LONG WAY HOME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, why the long face? This is a question you might ask someone if they look sad. Like if their face looks sad, if they look sad, you might say, hey, why the long face? Now, I haven't actually used this question a lot...