Bob's Short English Lessons

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A MIXED BAG and TO BE MIXED UPIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English term a mixed bag. When we say something is a mixed bag it means it's a little bit of one thing, a little bit of something else, and maybe a little bit of a third thing, or fourth, or fifth thing. When I go to buy shirts it's kind of a mixed bag at the store. There are short sleeve shirts and long sleeve shirts, new shirts, expensive shirts, old shirts, there are shirts that are on sale. It's a mixed bag. It's kind of a mixed bag when it comes to buying shirts. My mechanic sells different kinds of vehicles and when you go and look at the lot where he has all the vehicles, the parking lot, it's kind of a mixed bag. He has vans, and cars, and pickup trucks, there's all different sorts of vehicles, all different kinds of vehicles. It's definitely a mixed bag.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/bobthecanadianBut hey, the second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to be mixed up. When you are mixed up it means you're a little bit confused about something. And sometimes it means you're confused about two different things. Sometimes when people are coming over they come late because they got mixed up. They weren't sure what time they were supposed to come. Maybe when my sister's having a party, maybe my brother goes to my other sister's house because he was mixed up, he didn't know which house he was supposed to go to. So he was mixed up. He was mixed up and he wasn't sure where to go he was a little bit confused.So, to review, when something is a mixed bag it means that it is a variety of things. Our flower farm is kind of a mixed bag. We sell flowers, we also sell flower seeds, and we sell the bulbs. You can buy cut flowers, you can buy flowers in a pot, it's kind of a mixed bag. And when you are mixed up it means that you are confused. It doesn't have to be about two different things but we usually use it when we're talking about that. He bought one kind of bouquet for his wife but it was the wrong one because he was mixed up he wasn't sure which one he was supposed to buy.Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. And, I think it's in the pocket inside my sweater so give me a second here. I thought it was in the pocket of my jacket. I thought I forgot it for a moment there.This comment is from Roland and Roland says, " "Inception" is one of the most mind-blowing movies I have ever seen in my life. The concept of time travel can really blow your mind. My response was that movie really had me thinking. It was hard to keep track of all the dreams within dreams." So Roland is using the terms mind-blowing and blow your mind the terms and phrases from the last lesson. Excellent use of both of those Roland thank you for that comment.The movie "Inception" definitely blew my mind. It was hard to get my head wrapped around what was happening in that movie. It was mind-boggling. It blew my mind. Definitely excellent uses of all those phrases and terms to describe that movie. In that movie people go to sleep and then when they're asleep they can go into other people's dreams. But then they can have dreams inside of the dream and it gets a whole lot more confusing than that. And by the end I wasn't sure what was going on.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases IT WAS MIND BLOWING and IT BLEW MY MINDIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, it was mind blowing. You could also say it is mind blowing or it's going to be mind blowing. The tense doesn't actually matter. But when you talk about something that is mind blowing, you're talking about something that's amazing and hard to understand and it's just something that you're just not sure how to comprehend it. That was a pretty difficult explanation, I think. Let me rephrase that. If I go and see an amazing movie with lots of special effects, I could say the movie was mind blowing. It was mind blowing. I was just amazed and in awe at all the special effects that they used. If I think about the pandemic ending, I think that the first concert I go to is going to be mind blowing because it will be so much fun to be with other people listening to music again.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/bobthecanadianHey, the other phrase I wanted to teach you is very similar and it's it blew my mind. So we can say something was mind blowing, but we can also say it blew my mind, and it means exactly the same thing. If I watch a really cool movie, I could later say to someone, "Oh, it blew my mind. "The special effects in the movie were amazing. "The story was amazing. "There were so many awesome car chases. "It blew my mind." Basically, it means you were just amazed. It was hard to take it all in. It was very exciting. It's just an expression we use when we think something was really awesome or cool, but it can also mean something that's hard to understand. I gotta be careful here how I define it. 'Cause you can also say something like this, you know, "It blows my mind to think that the whole world is going through the same experience "right now with this pandemic." So that's not a positive use of the phrase, but it certainly reflects something that's hard to understand or comprehend or something that's amazing.So to review, if I say that it was mind blowing or if I say it blew my mind, I'm talking about things that are just hard to understand or comprehend. Hey, let's look at a comment, though, from a previous video. Let me find it. It's in my pocket here.I got a new sweater by the way. I got two of them. I got a darker one and a blue one. I'm very happy. They were on sale. They were only $20 each. That's a good price.But here's a comment from Athanasios. Athanasios says this, "Thanks, Teacher Bob. "I'm trying to get my head around how this blender works. "I can't make heads or tails of it." And my response was this. "I've always been a big fan of reading instructions. "Some people throw them out without reading them, "but I find they're a good way to get your head around "how to use something new."So thank you Athanasios for that comment. I'm not sure if you're reading the instructions for the blender that you're talking about, but I will tell you this. In life, I have always been an instruction reader. I don't know if that's part of the personality of someone who becomes a teacher.#englishlesson #englishvocabulary #speakenglish #bobthecanadianSupport the show

 Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO COME AROUND and TO GET YOUR HEAD AROUND SOMETHING In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, to come around. Now, this phrase has a lot of different meanings. I think it has five or six meanings, but I'm gonna talk about just one meaning today. When you are waiting for someone to come around, it means that you are waiting for them to think the same way as you about something. Maybe you think getting the COVID vaccine is a great idea, I do too, but maybe you have a friend who doesn't think it's a good idea and you just hope that eventually they come around to thinking it's a good idea as well. So when you are waiting for someone to come around, you're waiting for them to agree with you or to think the same way as you.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/bobthecanadianThe second phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, to get your head around something. When you are trying to get your head around something it means you are trying to understand it. You might notice that I'm wearing a jacket today and just a single shirt. I'm really trying to get my head around the fact that winter is probably over. I'm trying to understand and believe that spring is here, I'm just trying to get my head around it. Sometimes it takes me a while to get my head around it because I'm always worried that it's gonna really snow hard and get really cold next week. Spring is kind of weird, March is a weird month that can happen but definitely I'm just trying to get my head around the fact that spring is here. I'm trying to believe that it's here, I'm trying to understand that it is spring.So to review, when you are waiting for someone to come around to your point of view, when you're waiting for someone to come around, it simply means that you're waiting for them to think the same way as you do about something. And then when you are trying to get your head around something, it simply means you're trying to understand it or believe it.But hey let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Vito, and Vito says and he wrote a little like a play here starring Bob and the cat. Vito says, "Bob, if I give you a sardine later, can you run by on the video?" And the cat replies, "That's fine with me." Maggie gives a couple of smiley faces and my response was this. "That's how it goes, ha ha. "I bribe the animals to make appearances "so the lesson is more interesting." I was laughing at that one Vito, thanks for that comment Vito. Yeah, it did make me laugh and it made me smile.I don't know why sometimes the animals appear and why sometimes they don't. I do know this, if I make my video later in the day and if it's close to the time when Jen normally feeds Oscar and feeds the cats, if I make the video around four o'clock, I think sometimes the cats think I'm Jen or they think I'm going to give them some cat food. And I'm not the one that feeds them, that's not my job. #englishteacher #englishlessons #speakingenglish #bobthecanadianSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THAT'S FINE WITH ME and I'M FINE WITH THAT:In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, that's fine with me. This is a phrase we use when we are saying that something is okay with us. If my son was to say to me, "Dad, I wanna go out with my friends tonight. "Is that okay?" I could say, "That's fine with me." It basically means that, that's okay with me if he does that. I won't be bothered if he does that, that's fine with me. He can totally go out and see his friends tonight. Actually, he can't because there's COVID. But if this was a normal world right now, and my son wanted to go out with his friends, I could say, "Hey, that's fine with me, go ahead."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/bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, I'm fine with that, which means exactly the same thing. If you don't mind having cats run by in the background when I'm doing lessons, I'm fine with that too. It basically means that that's okay with me, it doesn't bother me, I'm fine with that. That wasn't the exact example I was going to give. I was going to use the same example as before. I could say, if my son asked if he could go hang out with his friends, I could say, "Hey, I'm fine with that, no problem." I could also say, "That's fine with me." And it would mean exactly the same thing.So I don't know if I need to review these phrases now, but let's do it anyways. If I say to someone, "That's fine with me," it means that it doesn't bother me, it means that I'm okay if they do something, it's totally fine with me. At work, someone could say, "Do you mind if I use your chair "while you're teaching in your classroom?" I would say, "That's fine with me." If someone came to the room and said, "Can we take three desks out of your room?" I could say, "Oh, that's fine with me." Or I could say, "Yeah, I'm fine with that, no problem." So basically it just means that you're okay with something someone else is doing.But, hey, let's look at a comment from the previous video. I actually forget who this comment's from. I put it in my pocket earlier today. This comment is from Xavier. "Roughly a month ago, I took up learning how to brew coffee. "I would never have thought that brewing good coffee "could be so hard, and sometimes I think of quitting "and just drinking bitter coffee again." So that's, Xavier's talking about from the lesson where we looked at, to take something up which means to start doing something. My response was, "I'm actually experimenting "with drinking tea instead of coffee, so far, so good." So thanks Xavier for that comment.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO TAKE UP and TO TAKE OFFIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To take up." Now, this phrase has a few meanings, but I'm just going to talk about one of them, and it has to do when you start a new hobby. Maybe you decided to take up tennis. Maybe you decided to take up piano. It means that you've decided to learn something new. I haven't taken up a new hobby in a long time. Maybe this spring or this summer when I have a little bit more time, which never happens, I should take up a new hobby. That might be a good idea. We also use this phrase in the classroom. Sometimes when students are done their work, I take up their work with them. I'll say, "Hey, we're gonna take up "the questions from yesterday." And it just means, as a teacher, that we're going to go over them. It also means that you're using someone's time. You can take up someone's time as well. But I don't wanna go over all of the definitions. The one I meant to talk about was if you are starting something new, if you're going to take up a new hobby.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/bobthecanadianThe second phrase I wanted to teach you today is, "To take off." So, we use this phrase in the same way as the phrase, "To get going." Sometimes when I'm talking to a friend, I might say, "Hey, I need to take off." Or I might say, "Hey, I need to get going." It simply means that it's time to leave the situation that you are in. Sometimes at school, I'll stay late and I'll talk to some of the other teachers. And then I'll realize that my kids are waiting for me in my van. And then I'll just say, "Oh, hey, I need to take off. "I need to get going. "I need to go home."So, to review, when you take up something, it means you start something new, and those other two definitions that I gave you as well. I should stop apologizing for English. It's kind of a fun language, but I do apologize that sometimes phrases have more than one meaning. And the phrase, "To take off," simply means that it's time to go. At the end of the video I could say, "Well, that's it for now. "I need to take off."But I'm not doing that right now. Don't leave. I am going to look at a comment from a previous video, and this comment is from Natalia. I think this is the second comment I've picked from Natalia this week. She's getting special treatment for some reason, I think because this comment made me laugh. So Natalia said this, "If someone told me before this video "that we need to clear the air, "I would think it smells here." And Vito gave some smiley faces and the other Natalia, Natalia Belgrade, gave some smiley faces as well. And I responded by saying this, "We can use it that way as well. "Sometimes when I walk into a classroom, "the room smells from the previous class "and I'll open the window for a bit to clear the air out. "We also say to air out the room or to air the room out. "And probably we would use those last two phrases, "those would be the most common way to say it."But certainly, sometimes, you know, people have certain smells. And sometimes when I walk into a classroom after there has been, you know, a teacher and 30 students in there, especially right now because our classes are two and a half hours long, sometimes the room has a certain smell to it and I'll open the window to clear the air out. Notice we do add the word out, though, to that phrase. So, I would open the window to clear the air out or I would open the window to air out the room or to air the room out. Yep, that's just part of being human, isn't it? Sometimes there's certain smells that when a lot of peoSupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO CLEAR SOMETHING UP and TO CLEAR THE AIRIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you understand the English phrase, to clear something up. When you have to clear something up with someone, it means that you said something to them, and maybe they didn't understand it. Maybe they are confused and you just need to clear something up with them. Sometimes when I'm teaching my classes, they don't understand exactly what they're supposed to be doing. I'll give them an assignment, and I'll hear students whispering, and I'll realize they don't understand what they're supposed to be doing. So I just need to then clear something up with them. I just need to explain everything again so that they are not confused. I have to do this quite a bit, actually. I don't think I'm the most logical person sometimes when I'm explaining things to students. And sometimes I just need to clear something up with them so that they understand.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"#englishteacher #englishlessons #speakingenglish #bobthecanadianThe second phrase I wanted to teach you today is, to clear the air. We use this phrase when two people have had a disagreement, or when two people aren't getting along, and then one of the people might clear the air with the other person. Let's say that me and a coworker, or sorry, a coworker and I got into an argument. I could go to work the next day and I could say to them, hey, I just want to clear the air a little bit. I want to apologize for what I did or said yesterday. It's when you want to make things normal again. Sometimes when you're not getting along with someone, or when you've had an argument or a small fight, you might need to clear the air before you can have a normal relationship with them again. Sometimes it's a nice thing to do to just say, hey, we had a bit of a disagreement yesterday, let's just clear the air. I want to apologize. Let's work better together from now on.So to review, when you need to clear something up, it simply means you need to explain something or clarify something. That's a great way to describe the meaning of this phrase, when you need to clarify something. And when you need to clear the air, it means that you've had kind of a argument or a disagreement with someone, or you're not getting along, and you just want to make things right again. That's probably the best explanation I can give.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from, Athanasios, also used to be known as Nathan GR, I think, but Athanasios, I really liked saying that name, Athanasios, by the way. When you're in the live lessons, it's kind of fun because I get to answer your question and I get to say your name. Anyways, thanks for these phrases, dear teacher. Something is going on with my headphones. I can't make heads or tails of it. My old cell phone, many times had a mind of its own. That's why I bought a new one. And my response was I had a phone like that once. It would hide on me and then it was hard to find it back. It had a mind of its own.So thanks Athanasios for that comment. Excellent use of both the phrase, to make heads or tails of something, or to not be able to make heads or tails of something, and the phrase, when something has a mind of its own. So thanks again for that comment. Excellent use though, of both phrases. Good job. Yes, I was joking a bit there, right? I had a phone once that that would hide on me.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases A MIND OF ITS OWN and TO MAKE HEADS OR TAILS OF ITIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, a mind of its own. This is a phrase we use to describe a machine that starts doing things that you didn't tell it to do, or starts behaving strangely. Sometimes my camera has a mind of its own. Sometimes it focuses on me and then sometimes it focuses on something behind, and that can be a little bit annoying, but sometimes my camera has a mind of its own. Sometimes when you're driving a vehicle, and when it starts to go off in one direction or the other, you might think, oh no, my car has a mind of its own all of the sudden. So it's like a thing, it's like a machine suddenly starts to think a little bit for itself, when you say that it has a mind of its own.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"#englishlessons #english #englishphrase #speakingenglish #bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, to make heads or tails of it. When you can't make heads or tails of something, it means you can't figure it out. We almost always use this phrase in the negative. In fact, I should've put that in front of here. I should've put, to not make heads or tails of something. We use it like this. I could say, y'know, the car won't start and I can't make heads or tails of it. I can't figure out why it won't start. You could say, you know, I'm trying to make a video, and I could say, y'know, my camera just won't work. I can't make heads or tails of it. I've set everything the way I normally set it, but it just isn't working right. I can't make heads or tail of it. Luckily that never actually happens to me. Usually my camera works really well. I should knock on wood right now to make sure that keeps happening.Anyways, to review, when you say that something has a mind of its own, you're talking about a thing, usually a machine, that starts acting strangely in a way that you didn't want it to behave or to act. And then when you can't make heads or tails of something, it means you can't figure it out.Hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from, I think, Natalia. I think I'm remembering this correctly. And Natalia says, "I have cold feet in the winter, "so I have to wear thick socks. "I got cold feet before I flew on a plane "for the first time." This was a comment from the video about the phrase, to have cold feet. And my response was this. "Great use of both the literal and figurative meanings "of the phrase, Natalia."So Natalia has given us two really cool example phrases that will help you understand what we mean by the literal meaning of something and the figurative meaning of something. Literally, she has to wear thick socks because it's cold in the winter, and she doesn't want her feet to get cold, so she wears thick socks. That's the literal meaning of having cold feet. And then the figurative meaning, the more of a, like a metaphor or simile or talking about something that actually means something else is to say that she had cold feet before she flew for the first time.Well thanks Natalia for that comment. I have to laugh because I'm not sure if you noticed, but going back to the phrases from the beginning, my camera just had a mind of its own. It just stopped recording when I was in the middle of a sentence there, and that's why you saw the little fade to black and then the fade back there. I had to kinda stop it and reset it. So ironically, my camera just had a mind of its own today while I was teaching the phrase for something to have a mind of its own. And now I'm not even sure how many minutes I've been recording. I think I have about 30 seconds left, so I'll just talk for a little bit.ESupport the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases OUT COLD and COLD FEETIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase out cold. The driveway behind me is very icy right now. If I slipped on it and hit my head, I would probably be knocked out cold. When someone is out cold, it means they are unconscious. Sometimes when you're watching a boxing match and people are fighting, the one boxer might punch the other boxer and then the other boxer might be knocked out cold. So when you say that someone is out cold, it means that they are unconscious. It means they have been knocked out. That's another way that we say it. So again, the driveway behind me was all snow, but things are melting now, so there's ice with a thin layer of water on top. It's very, very slippery. If I slipped on it and hit my head, it would probably knock me out cold. That wouldn't be very good.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"#englishlesson #englishvocabulary #speakenglish #bobthecanadianThe other phrase I wanted to teach you today also has the word cold, and it's the phrase cold feet. Now, you can use this phrase literally. You can say, "I have cold feet because the house is not warm enough," but we usually use this phrase to talk about when someone is nervous about doing something, maybe nervous to the point that they don't do it. We could say this. Let's say a friend and I were planning to go skydiving. We were going to jump out of a plane with a parachute, and then the day of the event, the day when we were going to do it, if I was at the airport and my friend never showed up, I could say, "Oh, he must have gotten cold feet." So he must have gotten to the point where he was just too afraid to do it. We sometimes use the phrase cold feet to talk about people when they're about to get married. Sometimes the bride or groom on the day of the wedding might start to get cold feet. That means they might start to think about, "Do I really want to marry this guy?" or, "Do I really want to marry this person?" Usually they do, but sometimes on the morning of their wedding, they might start to get a little bit of cold feet. So again, you can say that they have cold feet or you can get cold feet. You can say it either way.To review, when you are knocked out cold, it means you are unconscious. Clunk, hit your head, out cold. I have actually been out cold once in my life. I'm not sure why that happened again. I hit my head really hard and I was out cold for a little bit. And when you get cold feet or when you have cold feet, it means you're nervous or a little bit worried about doing something.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Maggie, and Maggie says this. "When my junior high school daughter has finished her assignments for school and is doing nothing except browsing her phone, I ask her to earn her keep. For example, doing the dishes. Sometimes it's hard to keep it together, though, when I lose my temper." I think the comment got cut off a little bit there. I don't have the rest of it here, but I'll put it on the screen anyways. And my response was this to Maggie. It's good for kids to help around the house and to earn their keep. Someday they will be adults, and if they don't learn how to cook and clean now, who will teach them?Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO KEEP IT TOGETHER and TO EARN YOUR KEEPIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase, "To keep it together." If you say to someone, "Hey, you need to keep it together," it means that that person is having some kind of emotional outburst. Maybe you play on a sports team, and you've won the championship, and you're cheering and shouting and you're super happy, but one of your teammates starts to cry a little bit. They're so overcome with emotion. They're starting to cry. You might say, "Hey, keep it together. "We need to go and get the trophy. "Don't start crying now. "You need to keep it together, smile, "and show a positive, happy face." So when you say to someone that they need to keep it together, you're telling them to stop being emotional.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"#englishteacher #englishlessons #speakingenglish #bobthecanadianThe other phrase that I wanted to teach you today is the phrase, "To earn your keep." When you earn your keep, it means you do work so that people appreciate having you around. The best example I can give for this is when my son comes home from university, he helps do certain jobs on the farm because we want him to earn his keep. Sorry, I changed the word your to his in that situation, but we want him to earn his keep. We don't want him to come home and just eat our food and lay on the couch and use our Wi-Fi without doing something in return. So when you have a situation where someone is earning their keep, or where you say to someone, "You need to earn your keep," it means that they need to do some things to contribute to whatever the living arrangement is.So let's review. When you say to someone that they need to keep it together, it means that they need to calm down, they need to stop being emotional, and they need to be a little more serious or a little more happy. You need to keep it together. Stop crying, Jim. Just because we won the championship doesn't mean you should get all emotional. Try to keep it together. And then the second phrase, "To earn your keep," is simply when someone does a little bit of work to help pay for food and lodging and all of the other things that go along with living somewhere. When my son comes home, we make sure that he earns his keep. Se doesn't just get to sit around. That wouldn't be very good anyways, would it?But anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video, and this comment is from Benoit. And Benoit says, "It doesn't matter if it's three "or four a week." Benoit is talking about the number of lessons I do each week. "As we all say, what matters is not the quantity "but the quality. "Anyway, Bob usually does a great job. "Thanks a million." And my response was, "I'll keep the quality high."So two words in there that Benoit has shared with us. Thanks for the comment, Benoit. Quantity and quality. So quantity refers to the amount of something, like how many videos did I make a week? Well, the quantity of videos I made per week was four. And quality refers to how good something is. So the quality of the videos I made each week, well, I thought it was okay and most of you think was really good. But the quality let's just agree was high, okay. I'm a little embarrassed saying that. I think it was medium-high, okay. So the quantity was four a week and the quality was okay. Now, I'm gonna do three videos a week, so the quantity has gone down, but the quality, I guarantee you, will stay absolutely the same.Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases THREE DAYS A WEEK and THREE DAYS PER WEEKIn this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase three times a week. Well, not actually the phrase three times a week, but the use of a. Sometimes when we're talking about how often we do something, we use the word a in the phrase. So you might exercise five days a week. You might go to the store one day a week. I make videos four days a week. Sometimes you do something three days a week. So it's simply a way to talk about how often you do something. I used to go visit Jen's parents once or twice a month. So sometimes we stick the word a in when we're talking about how often we do something.WANT FREE ENGLISH LESSONS? GO TO YOUTUBE AND SEARCH, "BOB THE CANADIAN"#englishlessons #english #englishphrase #speakingenglish #bobthecanadianWe also sometimes use the phrase three times per week. Or more importantly, the word per. This is kind of a more formal way to say the same thing. Sometimes you need to take two pills per day, or you need to go to the doctor three times per year. So you can use a or per, almost interchangeably. In my everyday speech though, I often just use a. I often say things like I go to the dentist a couple times a year. I make these videos four times a week. So that's how you use per and that's how you use a. So to review, if you want to talk about how often you do something, you can say that you do it a certain number of times a day, a certain number of times a month, a certain number of times a week, or you can also use the word per and sound a little bit more formal.Hey, why am I talking about this though? And why am I not reading a comment to you right now? Well, because I picked this phrase because I'm making a slight change on this YouTube channel. Before you get too worried though, I'm not going to stop, I'm definitely going to make videos on this channel for a very long time. But right now I am very, very busy. I'm busy because last semester I was teaching one less class than I am now. At work right now I'm teaching three classes a day. Notice how I'm using the word a, as well. I teach three classes a day, and I was teaching two classes a day last fall. So I'm very busy. I was a little bit part-time last fall, and now I'm full-time again. And because I'm busy at work, I don't have as much time to make English lessons for all of you.So here's what I'm going to do. I am going to start making three videos a week on this channel, instead of four. I know that might make some of you sad but it's just a change I need to make so I have a better work-life balance. Does that make sense? So I'm gonna make three videos a week instead of four. I was making an English lesson for you every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. I'm going to switch it up and there will be a new video every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.If I do that, it gives me a little bit more time to make my bigger video for my other channel, for my bigger channel. It gives me a little bit more time to prepare for my Friday morning livestream on Fridays, and it will just make my life just a little simpler. So again, I apologize that you will get one less video a week, one less English lesson a week. I'm still using the word a there, did you see that? But I think it will be good.Support the show