Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SCARRED FOR LIFE and THAT'S GOING TO LEAVE A MARK / SCAR! In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase scarred for life. Now, this is a more serious phrase, and we use it to talk about when something traumatic happens to someone and it's something that they will remember for the rest of their life. I guess the best example would be this. When I was a kid, we were sitting, waiting for a lift, bridge to c...
May 30, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 479
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUT A DAMPER ON SOMETHING and A WET BLANKET In this English lesson, I wanted to teach you the English phrase to put a damper on something. When you put a damper on something, it means that you make it not fun. Or something can also put a damper on something else. Right now, the weather is putting a damper on Jen's ability to plant things. It's been raining for two days, and that has, certainly put a damper on progress on the...
May 23, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 478
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO PUT TOGETHER and TO PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to put together. When you put something together, it means there are pieces. And then you attach all the pieces together with glue or screws or nails or something like that. If you're wondering what the noise is, Jen's driving by in her gator, which kind of cracks me up because one of the last comments was that th...
May 21, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 477
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED and TO MAKE THE BED In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get up on the wrong side of the bed or to wake up on the wrong side of the bed or to get out of the wrong side of the bed. There's a lot of different variations to this phrase, but basically it means that you're in a bad mood. If I was crabby and cranky, Jen might say, hey, did you get up on the wr...
May 16, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 476
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SUGARCOAT and A COAT OF PAINT Hi. I'll teach the phrase in a moment. I just got to get my gas pumping here. And then I will get started on the phrase to sugarcoat. Let me see here. Almost ready. There we go. WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN" If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadian Well, hi. In this English lesson, I wanted to hel...
May 14, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 475
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO COVER YOUR TRACKS and TO COVER ALL THE BASES In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to cover your tracks. Now, if you do something and you don't want anyone to know you did it, you might want to cover your tracks. Let's say there are cookies in the kitchen and I'm not supposed to eat them. I might go to the tray of cookies and eat two and then I might move the other cookies so it looks like the...
May 09, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 474
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BELT OUT and TO TIGHTEN YOUR BELT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to belt out. So a belt is something you wear on your pants so your pants don't fall down. But it's also a verb we use to talk about someone who's singing very, very loudly. You can belt out a song. Let's say you go to a karaoke evening somewhere and you choose your favourite song and then you get the microphone and as the ...
May 07, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 473
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A REAL HEADACHE and A SPLITTING HEADACHE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the phrase a real headache. Now this can have two meanings. The actual meaning is that your head hurts and maybe you need to go to a pharmacy to get some medicine so that you don't have a headache anymore. Maybe you have a real headache, an actual headache. But we also use this to talk about a situation that isn't easy. Right now I don't...
May 02, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 472
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S THE SPIRIT and A KINDRED SPIRIT In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase that's the spirit. When we say that's the spirit to someone, we are encouraging them or recognizing that they did something cool or that they're excited about something. I'm not sure I'm explaining this well. Let me explain. If I said to someone, I want to go for a hike tomorrow, but it's going to rain, if they said, I'l...
Apr 30, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 471
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms FACE-TO-FACE and IN PERSON In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term face to face. When you meet someone face to face, it means that you're in the same room, you're in the same spot. It's not the same as meeting them online. If I was talking to my boss and I had a complaint, maybe I'm talking to my boss on the phone, I might say, hey, maybe this would be better if we do it face to face. Can you hear that...
Apr 25, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 470
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY and IDENTITY CRISIS In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a case of mistaken identity. When you say that something is a case of mistaken identity, it means it's a situation where someone thinks someone is someone else, but they're not. So maybe as you're walking along, you see someone from behind and they have hair just like mine and it's the same colour and I'm about ...
Apr 23, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 469
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases PAST THEIR PRIME and PRIME TIME In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase past their prime. When you say someone is past their prime, it means they peaked at whatever they do well and now they aren't as good at it. We usually use this to talk about athletes, a professional athlete. Often when they are in their 30s, they start to not be as good at the sport as they used to be. And then we might say wh...
Apr 18, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 468
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE and TO SET A BAD EXAMPLE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase a textbook example. When something is a textbook example, it's something in real life that could have been in a textbook, maybe. Let me explain a little bit better. A textbook is a book you use in school to learn new things. And a textbook example is something that happens in real life that maybe could have been tau...
Apr 16, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 467
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL and THE FEELING IS MUTUAL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you understand the English term mutually beneficial. When something is mutually beneficial, it benefits both people. The other day in my lesson I used the term win win. When something's a win win, it means it's good for both people who are involved in whatever is happening. You could say the same thing here. When something is mutually benefic...
Apr 11, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 464
Preply is a great way to find an English conversation partner. Use this link http://preply.sjv.io/e1gM5D to get 50% off your first lesson or use code BOB50 at checkout. In my experience Preply is a great way to take your language learning to the next level. Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases SIGHT UNSEEN and OUT OF SIGHT, OUT OF MIND In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase sight unseen. Now we use this when we're talking about buyin...
Apr 09, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 463
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MY HEART SKIPPED A BEAT and A HOP, SKIP, AND A JUMP In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression my heart skipped a beat. Now this can be used in a couple of ways. It can be used in a romantic way. Like I could say, the first time I met Jen, my heart skipped a beat, meaning that I found her attractive and I was excited to see her. So my heart skipped a beat. Like ba bump, buh bump, buh bump, buh bum...
Mar 12, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 462
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S THE WAY IT GOES SOMETIMES and IT IS WHAT IT IS. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English expression, that's the way it goes sometimes. This is an expression we use when you know life. Things just happen in life and there's nothing you can do about it. I picked this expression or phrase because this is exactly what I said when I lost my voice last week. I had just done a video saying that I'm bound a...
Mar 10, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 461
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases BOUND AND DETERMINED and TO BE BOUND TO In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase bound and determined. When you are bound and determined to do something, it means you are going to do it. It means you are serious about doing it. It means that you are committed to doing it. The best example I could come up with today, even though I don't like to be political, is to say that President Trump is bound an...
Mar 05, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 460
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words AIRHEAD and AIRBALL In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English word airhead. Now, this is not a nice word. This is a word you use to talk about someone who isn't very smart, someone who makes a lot of mistakes. You might call them an airhead. Actually, it's more like someone who doesn't remember things. You might call them an airhead. Maybe at work, you have to work with someone and you teach them how to do so...
Feb 26, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 459
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IN THE DARK and A SHOT IN THE DARK In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase in the dark. When you are in the dark, it means you don't know about something. I use this example a lot, but if someone was planning a surprise party for me, they would want to keep me in the dark. They would want to make sure that I don't know about the party. If they were planning like a surprise birthday party, they woul...
Feb 21, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 458
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases WISHFUL THINKING and TO THINK BIG In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is when you think positively about something, but it probably isn't going to go the way you think it will. Here's a great example. If you don't study and you have an English test in a few months and you just think, ah, I'll just watch YouTube videos and I'll pass that English test, that's pr...
Feb 19, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 457
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO WORK WELL WITH OTHERS and A TEAM PLAYER In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to work well with others. When you are working and you are working with other people, either you work well with others or you don't work well with others. Some people work better by themselves. Some people enjoy working with others and they work well with others. I'll explain what I am in a bit. You might be surprise...
Feb 14, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 456
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms HEAVY HITTER and HEAVY HEART In this English lesson, I'd like to help you learn the English term heavy hitter. When you say someone is a heavy hitter in a certain area, it means they are like the most famous or most powerful person in that area. If I was to have a guest on my YouTube channel, if I could convince Lucy from English with Lucy to come on my channel, she would be a heavy hitter. She would be one of the most successful...
Feb 12, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 455
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases MIGHT AS WELL and FREEZING RAIN In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase might as well. We use this phrase when we're saying that we should do something. I think a good example is this. If you're driving in your car on the highway and you pull over to get gas, you might as well get something to eat as well. Since you're already getting gas, you should eat at the same time because you don't want to s...
Feb 07, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 454
Read along to practice your English and to learn the English words ONE and the phrase A GOOD ONE In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn some interesting ways to use the word one. We can use the word one sometimes in sentences like this. You could say, that was one amazing movie, that was one awesome song. That was one amazing cool concert. So somehow the word one ends up in the sentence, if someone was in a car accident and they didn't get hurt at all, you might say, oh, that was one...
Feb 05, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 453
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 your colleague because you're just the better choice. Sometimes when teams are playing towards the end of t...
Jan 31, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 452
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 truckload showed up. That would be a real schemozzle. Or maybe instead of four truckloads showing up, eight trucklo...
Jan 29, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 451
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 bottom. This can also happen with a car. If you drive an old car over some railroad tracks, tracks, ...
Jan 24, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 450
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 a way to motivate people. I think it comes from the idea that a long time ago, if you wanted a donkey to ...
Jan 22, 2025•5 min•Season 1Ep. 449
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. It's really warm outside. I'm just wearing a hoodie and a baseball cap. It's like 5 degrees or something and rainin...
Jan 18, 2025•4 min•Season 1Ep. 448
