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Bob's Short English Lessons

By: Bob the Canadian
  • Summary

  • If you want to learn English with short easy-to-understand lessons then you've come to the right place. I'm Bob the Canadian and I make videos on Youtube (Just search for "Bob's Short English Lessons" on Youtube!) as well as podcasts right here to help you learn English. Four times each week I upload a short English lesson with a complete transcript in the description. During these lessons I teach one or two curious phrases from the English language and answer a listener question. Thanks for joining me and I hope your English learning is going well!
    © 2024 Bob's Short English Lessons
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Episodes
  • Learn the English Phrases "to cry wolf" and "to wolf down"
    May 10 2024

    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 wolf attacking his sheep. And then the villagers would come and help him and there would be no wolf. And he did it two or three times. And then eventually when he yelled wolf, nobody came because no one believed him. So we now use this phrase in English to talk about someone who says something bad is happening when it's not happening. If someone ran up to your house and said, there's a fire in my house, and you went to help them, and then when you got there, there was no fire, and for some reason they just laughed about it because they tricked you, you would say that they were crying wolf. So it's simply a phrase that means someone for some reason, is saying something bad is happening and it's not actually happening.

    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

    The second phrase I wanted to teach you is to wolf down. Now, I might have taught this phrase before, but to wolf down means to eat really, really quickly. Teenagers tend to wolf down their food. When I was a teenager, if I sat down to eat some hot dogs, I would eat three or four hot dogs really quickly. I would wolf down my food. Basically, it means I would eat as if I was a wolf. I guess if you were to watch a wolf eat, they eat really, really quickly.

    So to review, to cry wolf means to say something is happening when it's not actually happening. I can't think of other good examples, but definitely the story of the boy with his sheep and him yelling wolf and the villagers coming to help and then there's no wolf. That would be a great example. And that is where the phrase comes from. And to wolf down simply means to eat your food really, really quickly. Sometimes when I'm hungry, I still wolf down my food, but it's always best to, to chew everything carefully before you swallow it. Wolfing down your food isn't very healthy.

    But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Aerosmith77. Thanks for the phrases. Will you ever appear in Jen's videos longer than a few seconds? And my response? Yes, for sure. But at this point it's mostly her because I'm still at work. I'm sure I'll be in here and there throughout the summer.

    So, yeah, that was a comment related to, there was a video the other day on Jen's YouTube channel where I briefly appeared driving my tractor and dumping some compost. So yeah, when the summer comes I'll have a little more time to help Jen on the farm, of course, and to do more work with her. And then I'll show up in her videos just a little bit more. And for those of you that don't know, Jen has a YouTube channel. I'll put a link in the description below and you can have a look at it.

    So. But anyways, yeah. How are things going here on the farm? Pretty good. It's been a little bit wet. We're mostly planting flowers. We aren't harvesting a lot of flowers yet, but you can see things like where there were daffodils. There are no longer daffodils because we harvested some of the blooms and sold them. There are some really pretty flowers over here, though. I'll show you. I'm not sure what these are called. These are really nice. I know, we'll be picking a few of these. We have some of these out in the bigger field as well. So we'll be harvesting some of

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    5 mins
  • Learn the English Phrases "to pull out" and "to pull through"
    May 8 2024

    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 two weeks, but at the last minute, you might decide to pull out. You might decide to withdraw your registration for that tournament, you might decide not to do it. So in that sense, to pull out can mean to decide not to do something. This also is used to describe things like when a country invades another country, eventually that country might decide to pull out. So if one country sends soldiers into another country, they might decide to withdraw, they might decide to pull out of that country. So it has a couple of different meanings, but that's the meaning I wanted to focus on today. To withdraw or to decide not to do something.

    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

    The second phrase I wanted to teach you today is to pull through. Now, this is a very serious phrase. We use it to talk about when someone gets injured. And when we say they're going to pull through, it means that they're going to survive. So it's something you talk about after someone has a really bad car accident. You might say, oh, Joe had a really bad car accident. He's very badly injured, but he will pull through. That means that the doctors think that he will heal the, they'll probably do some surgeries or something to help him feel better. But when you say someone is going to pull through, it's used to describe a serious situation where someone was hurt and they're not going to die, they're going to get better, they're going to pull through.

    So to review, to pull out means to withdraw or decide, or to decide not to do something. And to pull through means that you were hurt very, very badly, but, but you're going to get better. So if you were in a car accident and someone said, oh, he was injured badly, but he's going to pull through, it means you're going to get better.

    But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from know that. Hello, Bob. So do you have special clothes for working on your farm, like overalls or something like that? Or do you just use some of your old shirts and pants? By the way, that reminds me of something you mentioned once, that you don't like it when your dogs jump on you in the morning because you don't want your school clothes to get dirty and then you have to change again. Thanks for the new lesson. Bob. Have a great day. And my response? That is correct. I have different clothes for the farm. They are a collection of older clothes and specific farm clothes. Sometimes I wear older jeans that aren't good to wear in public anymore on the farm.

    So, yeah, that's a good question. I talk about school clothes and farm clothes, like, without really explaining it. I've just used those terms before. But yes, I do have different clothes. So on a day like this, when I come home, I just come outside in my school clothes. I call these my school clothes to make a quick video for you. But then I will change into my farm clothes later because I have to, I have to help Jen do a few things out here in the flower field. So, yes, my farm clothes, I have a few specific things. Like, I have really good work boots that I use on the farm. I have, most of my t shirts are just old t shirts that I don't wear out in public anymore. And most of my pants are just old jeans that I don't wear. Maybe they have a little

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    5 mins
  • Learn the English Expressions "Sounds good!" and "Sounds bad!"
    Apr 12 2024

    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, sounds good, I'll see you then. Sometimes Jen needs help with some work when I get home from school. And if Jen says, hey, when you get home tomorrow, can you come out and help me with something? I might say, sounds good. As soon as I get home I'll put my farm clothes on and I'll come out and help you with that. I usually don't wear my school clothes when I'm working on the farm. They would get muddy and my shirts wouldn't last as long. I'll talk about that more in a moment.

    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

    The other phrase I wanted to teach you today, or term or expression actually is sounds bad. And we also sometimes just say, that doesn't sound good. And this is something we say when something isn't good. So if I knew someone who went to the hospital and they needed to get x rays, I might say, oh, sounds bad. Do you think they broke a bone? If someone says to me, I wrote an English test a couple weeks ago, I haven't got my results back yet, but I don't think I did very well, I might say, oh, that sounds bad. Notice sometimes we put that in front that that sounds bad. Hopefully you did okay.

    So to review, when you say sounds good, it means you're happy about something, you're looking forward to something, you think it's good. Hey Bob, can you make a video next week for us? Sounds good. I'll get right on it. And if someone says, sounds bad, it usually means you think a situation isn't good. If someone says, there was a windstorm the other day and lots of trees fell over, you might say, oh, sounds bad there. I hope things will be okay. Sometimes the electricity goes out too and it sounds worse than it is, so. But you still might say, ooh, sounds bad. I hope the electricity comes back on soon.

    So to review... Oh, did I review already? I think I did, didn't I? Oh, I'm losing track of what I'm doing. Let's look at a comment from a previous video. Let's do that instead. And if I did forget to review, then, oh well, I didn't do it this time. I think I did though. Anyways, it's been a long week. This is how my brain works. This is from Ünsal and Ünsal, I shortened your comment a bit. I hope that's okay with you. It was a great comment. I just didn't have time to read all of it.

    Ünsal says hi teacher Bob, all your shirts look brand new. How do you manage to preserve to preserve your shirts for many years? I'm saying the word wrong. How do you manage to preserve your shirts for many years without fading or wearing out? If you don't have several of the same ones, can you share the secret? And my response? I have slowly cycled through some of them, but I do have shirts that are 20 years old. This one is in fact that old. They are good enough to wear underneath a sweater, but not quite good enough to wear by themselves because I usually wear blue plaid, many of them might look similar in my videos. So thanks Ünsal for that.

    Yeah, my blue shirts. So one of the things I've noticed is that because I work inside and I'm not in the sun, and because as a teacher, I don't do any physical labor. Like, I'm not lifting things or moving things throughout the day, I think my shirts just last longer. My clothes that I wear on the farm do not last as long as the clothes I wear for work at school. And also, I'm not in

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    4 mins

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