Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying ABOVE AND BEYOND and BEYOND COMPARE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase above and beyond. When you go above and beyond, it means you do a really, really good job. If at work, my boss said to me, Bob, can you work on this project? And if I worked on it for like, ten or 12 hours a day, seven days a...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions phrases TO PLAY DIRTY and A DIRTY LOOK In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to play dirty. When you play a game, maybe you're playing soccer or what most of you call football, or you're playing a board game. If you cheat or if you use tactics that aren't good, we say that you ar...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English saying NO HARM, NO FOUL! and the term FOUL LANGUAGE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English saying no harm, no foul. This is a saying we use when we do something that maybe could be bad, but if nothing bad happens, then no foul has occurred. A foul is like a negative thing in life or in a sports game. If you do som...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions I HEAR YOU and I GOT YOU In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase I hear you. Now, this can simply mean that you can hear someone. But we also use this when we agree with what someone said and we want to let them know that we think the same way as them. So someone might say to you, hey, the boss w...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases AT THIS STAGE and STAGE FRIGHT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase at this stage. Now, this is something you can use to talk about life. You can use it to talk about a project, and you use it to talk about the part that you're in right now. So here's a few examples. At this stage in my...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions TO GIVE SOMEBODY THE SLIP and TO SLIP THROUGH YOUR FINGERS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to give somebody the slip. If you give somebody the slip, it means you escape. It means for some reason, they were trying to catch you and you managed to get away. You will most likely hear this phr...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP SOMETHING UNDER WRAPS and IT'S HUSH-HUSH! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to keep something under wraps. Now, if you're told to keep something under wraps, it means you're supposed to keep it a secret. You're not supposed to tell anyone about it. Maybe at work ther...

Here is the link to Jen's Youtube channel about the flower farm: http://www.youtube.com/@myflowerfarm Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions TO CRY WOLF and TO WOLF DOWN In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to cry wolf. Now, this phrase comes from a fable, a story from long ago, about a boy who kept yelling that there was a wo...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PULL OUT and TO PULL THROUGH In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to pull out. Now, this has a number of different meanings, but the meaning I wanted to focus on today means to withdraw from something. So let's say you signed up to play in a badminton tournament and the tournament is in tw...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English expressions SOUNDS GOOD! and SOUNDS BAD! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression sounds good. Now this is something we say to people when we are agreeing with them. If a friend of mine said, hey Bob, do you want to meet at the restaurant tomorrow at 08:00 in the morning for some breakfast, I might say, s...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms SPACED OUT and SPACE CADET In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term spaced out. Now you can have things spaced out. You can see these trees here are spaced out. When Jen and I planted those willow trees years ago, I think they're about three paces apart. We spaced them out. You can also see along my...

So today's English lesson is going to be a little different. I'm going to tell you a joke, and the joke is this, how does the moon cut his hair? I'll let you think about that for a bit. You'll understand why I'm asking this joke in about 3 seconds. How does the moon cut his hair? Eclipse it. And this is kind of a little bit of a play on words. An eclipse is when the moon g...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases FAIR SHARE and NO FAIR! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase fair share. When you get your fair share, it means something has been divided up and everyone got an equal amount. Let's say I'm sitting in my kitchen and I'm about to eat a piece of pie, and all of my children come into t...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms TO TAG ALONG and TO PLAY PHONE TAG In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to tag along. When you tag along with someone, it means you go with them. If Jen said that her and her brother were going to see a movie, I might say, hey, can I tag along? I'd like to see that movie as well. So it does hav...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A REGULAR HAUNT and TO COME BACK TO HAUNT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a regular haunt. So, haunt is a word we use to talk about ghosts. Like, ghosts can haunt a building, but when you say something was your regular haunt, it means it's a place you used to go to a lot. So this used to...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms YOU'RE ONE TO TALK! and LOOK WHO'S TALKING! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, you're one to talk. This is kind of a sarcastic phrase that we use to kind of make fun of someone when they're being critical of other people, but they are doing the thing, they're being critic...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DO LUNCH and THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to do lunch. If you say to someone, hey, do you want to do lunch tomorrow? It simply means you want to have lunch with them. You want to go to a restaurant and order some food and sit and eat it togethe...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms A NO-BRAINER and A BRAINIAC In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term a no-brainer. When we say something is a no-brainer, it means it's very obvious, it's very easy. There's not a lot of thought that needs to go into the decision to do it. Here are a couple of examples. Jen loves growing th...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EYE SOMETHING and TO HAVE AN EYE FOR SOMETHING In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to eye something. When you eye something, it means you look at it usually because you want it. It can have other meanings as well, but usually when I eye something, it means I want it. If I'm sitting in a r...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO MAKE EYE CONTACT and TO MAKE CONTACT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to make eye contact. When you talk to someone, you can look directly into their eyes. You can make eye contact when you talk to them. But often when you're having conversations, you do look away occasionally as well....

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BUGGER OFF and TO DO BUGGER ALL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to bugger off. Now, this is definitely an informal phrase. You wouldn't use this in a formal situation, but when you say someone is going to bugger off, it means that they are going to leave, and it usually means that you...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE OFF and TO BACK OFF In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the phrase to be off. Now, this has a few meanings. The one I'm going to focus on today simply means to leave. If I said to Jen, I'm off. I'm going to go to town and buy some gas. It means that I have my keys in my hand. It means that I&ap...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BLOW OFF STEAM and DON'T BLOW IT! So I thought we'd start this video by watching the sander truck go by backwards. We're getting a little bit of snow here, so that's a little bit of fun. So I'll start the lesson in just a sec. Let me get set up. I wasn't quite ready. Well, there's a little bi...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE WIRED FOR and TO BE PRONE TO In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be wired for. We sometimes say to be wired to, but I actually use for more often. When you're wired for something, it means you're naturally good at it. If you think about a professional hockey player, they'r...

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases GIMME A BREAK! and GIMME A SEC! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase give me a break. Which is the short, informal way of saying give me a break. This is a sentence or phrase we use in a couple situations. One is when you really need a break. Let's say Jen and I are putting flowers in the van...