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Bob's Short English Lessons

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Mar 20, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "You're one to talk!" and "Look who's talking!"

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 critical of themselves. That sounded a little confusing. Let me explain. If I was eating a doughnut and if I said to you as I ate the donut, those people eat too much, and I pointed to some people across the street, you could then say to me, You're one to talk! You're eating a donut. If I was to say, people in the world should eat healthier food, and then I started on my second donut, you could legitimately say to me, you're one to talk, to kind of make fun of me because I'm judging other people, but I'm doing the same action myself.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, Look who's talking! This means exactly the same thing. The two phrases are identical today. Well, that is a loud truck, eh? Let's have a look at that. A big truck full of chips. People eat too many chips. And then you could say, look who's talking as I sit at night and eat a big bowl full of chips while I watch a basketball game on TV. That was kind of timely to have a chip truck go by. It's hard to believe a whole truck is just full of chips.But anyways, to review: You're one to talk! or Look who's talking! are both phrases we use to kind of make fun of someone when they are expressing an opinion that they are guilty of themselves.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Konstantin. Great time, Bob. We say free cheese is only in a mousetrap. Our mowing season is yet to come, but we're getting our trimmers ready, too. And my response, I like that phrase. I'm going to start using it. Yeah, free cheese is only in a mousetrap. That's related to my lesson the other day about how there's no such thing as a free lunch. So I'm just out in town. Oh, by the way, Konstantin, thanks for that comment.I'm just out in town. Once again, pop out of work. I guess I could show you things like this. This is a sketchy alley, which you may have seen in a previous video. Behind me, though, is a really old building. I'm not sure if that building is going to last. I don't know if it's going to be torn down. This whole area here, let me give you a little bit better. Look at it. Let me spin you and let me cross the street safely here. We'll look this way and then we'll look this way. Look safe. Here we go.This whole area here, there was a sign up here that they're going to build something here. I don't know if they're going to build some houses or if they're going to do something else, but I think this building, this old building did have a little yellow sign in the window, which usually means that it's going to be torn down. So usually in Ontario, Canada, if they're going to tear a building down, especially in town, they have to tell everyone so that you have time to complain about it.So let's say I loved this building, and if it was scheduled to be torn down in a year, there would be a process where you could write letters to the town to kind of say, hey, I like that building, please don't tear it down. Or my friends and I have lots of money, we'll donate it to the town to keep that historic building open. So again, I'm not 100% sure. I'm not sure if it's going to be torn down, but I do think I remember seeing that little yellow notice sign in the window a couple of months ago. So mSupport the show
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Mar 15, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "to do lunch" and "There's no such thing as a free lunch!"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO DO LUNCH and THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCHIn 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 together. You could also say, hey, do you want to go have lunch tomorrow? It means the same thing. But do lunch is usually something you say to a colleague, like I don't ever say to Jen, hey, do you want to do lunch tomorrow? But if I'm at work, I might say to someone, hey, we need to talk about this new project. Maybe we can do lunch tomorrow and we can talk about it while we eat. So to me, at least, it's like asking someone if they want to have lunch, but you're kind of talking about work, like a work meeting at lunch.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, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You can say this other ways, like, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. The way I say it is there's no such thing as a free lunch. And this simply means that nothing in life is actually free, even if it says it's free. If I get a letter in the mail and it says that I'm going to be given something for free from a business, generally there are strings attached. That means they want me to buy something. So when we say there's no such thing as a free lunch, we simply mean, even when something is said to be free, nothing in life is actually free. There's usually something else going on.So to review, to do lunch simply means to have lunch with someone. And when you say there's no such thing as a free lunch, it simply means that nothing in life is actually truly free.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Francisco Brainiac is also a supervillain in the DC Comics. He's the enemy of Superman and the Justice League. His name is a portmanteau of the words brain and maniac. And my response? Ah, yes, I just looked him up. I didn't realize that. So I didn't realize that. I think I talked about Lex Luthor the other day in one of my videos as being the arch enemy, but I didn't know that there was another one.By the way, portmanteau is when you put two words together, probably the best example I can think of is brunch. So you take the word breakfast and lunch, and you combine them. Breakfast is in the morning. Lunch is at noon, but brunch is around ten or 11:00 a.m.So anyways, not sure if you can see the gentlemen working across the river. I will zoom in. But every year they come out with their four wheelers and a little trailer and their chainsaws and they cut up all the wood that kind of floated onto their land. In previous videos you've probably seen the river flooded onto that piece of land and they're out there today chopping up all the little pieces of wood. They'll probably end up using them as firewood.And it's another beautiful day here, so it's a great day to do that. Jen and I will probably clean up parts of the yard this morning as well. We'll probably try to get things in tip top shape before the grass starts growing soon. Not really soon, but soon we will have to start mowing the lawn. So we do like to clean up all of the sticks and everything else that's kind of fallen onto the lawn so that it's nice and clean when we do start mowing. We actually had our lawn mower serviced. Our riding mower is all ready to go. Blades are sharpened, oil has been changed. It starts up really well and runs really well. So we'llSupport the show
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Mar 13, 2024 • 5min

Learn the English Terms "a no-brainer" and "brainiac"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms A NO-BRAINER and A BRAINIACIn 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 things. Jen loves flowers. So it was a no-brainer for her to decide to start a business where she grows and sells flowers. She didn't have to think about that a lot. She didn't have to stress about whether she was good at it. She already knew that she was good at it. So it was a no-brainer. For me I always loved computers and still do. And I've been talking in front of people in a classroom for a long time, and I am a language teacher, so it was a no-brainer for me to decide that I should start making English lessons on YouTube. So when something's a no-brainer, it means it's a really easy decision, because everything's fallen into place already for you to make that decision.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 term I wanted to teach you today is the term a brainiac. Now, this isn't an insult. It is informal. It's not always flattering, but it's used to refer to someone who's really, really smart. So I have a cousin who's a brainiac. I hope they're not watching this video. Someone who's just really good in school, someone who gets 100% on every test, someone who goes to university. We would describe that person as a brainiac. Someone who is really good at thinking.So, to review, a no-brainer, by the way, did you notice both these terms have the word brain in it? And I think I taught this one a couple of years ago, maybe four years ago. But a no-brainer is something where you don't really need to use your brain much to make a decision. And a brainiac is used to describe a person who's really, really smart. Yeah, I have some really smart cousins on my mom's side of the family. My dad's side of the family has some smart people, too, if you're watching. But there are certainly some brainiacs, a few university professors on that side, I think even some crazy stuff like that.Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video from Qiu Park. Amazing spring day. I can feel it even through the screen. Thanks, Bob. And then my response, it certainly is starting to feel that way. If you listen, there's actually birds chirping right now. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be quite nice, like today and tomorrow. I'll use your comment in the next video to remind myself to talk about it.So yeah, it's really nice out here today. I have a sweatshirt on and I don't think I need it. By the way. I feel like I do get a little repetitive in my videos. I feel like every spring when the daffodils come up, I come out here and show you. So here are the daffodils. They are popping out of the ground. They will start blooming in a few weeks. And then, as I mentioned, if you listen, you can hear some birds chirping. I'm not sure if you can hear it. I hope you can. So all of that together makes it feel like spring.I'm trying to get closer to this bird here. It's actually up here in the tree. See, how, uh.... How close can I get to it? It's up there on the branch. I would say it's a robin, but I'm not 100% sure. It kind of looks like one. I'm not... I'm not 100%... I'm not a tree expert necessarily. So it's spring. Soon we'll have to clean all the sticks up off the ground. Soon the trees as well.... I'm not sure if I can get to a close branch, but you can see that the trees will soon leaf out. They're budding aSupport the show
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Mar 8, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "to eye something" and "to have an eye for something"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO EYE SOMETHING and TO HAVE AN EYE FOR SOMETHINGIn 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 room and there are cookies on a plate, I will eye the cookies while I'm talking to people because I'm thinking, hmm, those look yummy and I want to eat one. So I will eye the cookies. This happens sometimes at school as well. Sometimes we're having a staff meeting and there will be treats for us to eat when we have our coffee break and I will eye them during the meeting. I'll think, do I want a cookie or a doughnut when we have our coffee break. So when you eye something, it means you look at it.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/bobthecanadianNow, the second phrase is to have an eye for something, and it's slightly different. And I think I explained this one in a previous video. When you have an eye for something, it means you're good at it. And we're usually talking about something visual. Some people have an eye for home decorating. Some people are just really good at choosing paint colors and making a room look really good. They have an eye for it. As I said in my previous explanation of this phrase, I think Jen has a real eye for making bouquets. She knows what flowers to put together and how many of each flower and what colors look really good together. She has an eye for it. So when you have an eye for something, it means you're good at something, but it's usually something visual. You have an eye for decorating a room. You have an eye for making bouquets. You might have a real eye for something like art. You might use that phrase as well.So to review to eye something means to look at it because you want it. And to have an eye for something means to be really good at something visual, something that people can see. But anyways, let's look at a phrase from a previous, uh... let's look at a comment from a previous video. This is from Mohd Ags. Back to where it all started. Under the backdoor of your van on a rainy day after seven full years Learn English with Bob the Canadian has come full circle. Good phrase by the way. Man, so many amazing memories came flooding back to me. Very cool. My response. Yes, except this time I actually got really wet. When I went back to work, a few people gave me a funny look. I guess I should start to carry an umbrella with my video gear in the spring.So that's something I don't do. By the way, Mohd. Thanks for the comment. I don't carry an umbrella with me. I should start doing that. I think it's really common in Britain to carry an umbrella. In Canada, umbrellas actually aren't that common, I think, because we're just used to if it's bad weather, you just get in your car as quickly as possible and then you get into your house or get into your building at work as quickly as possible and just try to avoid the weather. Maybe Canadians don't walk as much as they should and so we don't tend to always have umbrellas with us.What was I going to talk about today? It is spring break for me. As you watch this, I'm making this video on a Thursday evening. I just finished my last day of work and I am now on break. So it's Friday. If you're watching this, that's when this video will come out. My first day of spring break. I'm really looking forward to it. Some people go away during spring break. Jen and I will be going away for a couple of days, but most of spring break we willSupport the show
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Feb 28, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "to make eye contact" and "to make contact"

Learn the English phrases 'to make eye contact' and 'to make contact'. Discussion on cultural differences in eye contact etiquette and methods of reaching out to someone through calls, texts, or letters.
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Feb 23, 2024 • 5min

Learn the English Phrases "to bugger off" and "to do bugger all"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BUGGER OFF and TO DO BUGGER ALLIn 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 probably didn't want them to leave. A good example would be this. If I had a car accident, if someone hit me, I wouldn't want the other guy to bugger off. I would want that person to stay until the police come. And this does sometimes happen. Sometimes people have a car accident and the person who hit them will bugger off. They'll just drive away. And if the police do catch them, they'll get in lots of trouble. I think having a dash cam is a good way to catch people on camera after a car accident before they bugger off.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 help you learn today is the phrase to do bugger all. So if someone does bugger all, it means they haven't really done anything. And again, this is a very informal phrase, but if I came home from work, let's say I'm working on a project with another teacher and we are supposed to be doing it together and I do all the work, I might come home to Jen and say, oh, today, Joe didn't do bugger all on the project. He just sat around and talked while I did all the work. So when you do bugger all, it simply means that you aren't doing anything when you're supposed to be doing some work.So to review, to bugger off means to leave. And the accident example is probably the best one. If I was to get in an accident, I wouldn't bugger off, and I wouldn't want the other person to bugger off either. And to do bugger all simply is a very crude way, a very informal way to say someone is doing nothing. Jen would get really mad at me in the summer if she was working hard and I didn't do bugger all. She would be like, get to work. We got to sell these flowers.But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Gabriella. I hope I'm remembering that right. Hello, Bob. This way of teaching by telling your life story is simply fantastic. Thank you. And then a big wave. And my response. You're welcome, Gabriella. So thank you for that comment.Yeah, I do enjoy talking about myself and I'm glad that you all enjoy listening to me. So, first of all, I wanted to mention something about, again, my life. Can you hear the wind chimes? I don't see them, but there's definitely wind chimes here.Anyways, the other day, I was bringing my son to a friend's house. That friend lives way down this road. You can see my van there. But that was the other day, and I noticed on this side of the road that there was all kinds of new houses that I had never seen before. So I feel like this subdivision just showed up. I swear. First of all, I don't think I've been down this road for two or three years, and I think that the last time I drove down this road, I don't think these houses existed. I think they were all built probably during the pandemic or maybe a year after it, but they looked really new, and I wanted to show you.This is what we call a duplex. So one house is on this side, and one house is on the other side. So this garage door belongs to one person. This garage door belongs to another person. And they aren't attached between. So it's one building right here, but there are two houses in this building. So there's a wall down the middle separating the two houses. And you would either live on one side or the other side of the duplSupport the show
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Feb 21, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "to be off" and "to back off"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE OFF and TO BACK OFFIn 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'm about to go out the door and I'm going to drive to town. So when you say that you are off, it means that you are going somewhere. The other day, Jen said, well, I'm off. See you at 4:00 and then I responded by saying, oh, where are you going? And she said, oh, don't you remember? I said I was going to go pick up the kids from school, so I'm off to go get them. So it simply means to leave.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 to back off. Now, this can mean to physically back off from someone, but we also use it to talk about if you're talking to someone and it's obvious they're upset, you might back off a little bit. Especially in situations where as a parent, sometimes if I'm talking to one of my kids and it's obvious they're upset about something, I might back off a little bit. Instead of saying, why did you come home so late? I might say to them, oh, you're obviously upset. We'll talk about it later. So I might back off. Instead of saying, you're supposed to be home by 11:00 p.m. You broke your curfew, you're grounded. You can look all those words up, by the way. Instead, I might think, oh, my child seems a bit upset. Maybe they didn't have a good evening. I'll back off. Instead of being a harsh dad, I'll back off. And then maybe Jen will go talk to them about it.So anyways, to review, to be off simply means to leave. Like after this video, I'm off to town to go have supper with my family. And to back off means to kind of step back a little bit, either physically or just in a conversation so the person has some time to think and calm down from the situation.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ruslan. Thank you for the cool lesson, dear teacher Bob, so much snow, it looks like you went beyond the wall, Bob Snow. And then my response, I showed the clip to my mom and she laughed. She loved the snow piling up on my head. By the way, nice Game of Thrones reference.So Ruslan there, thanks for that comment. Made a little reference to Game of Thrones. I don't know if you've watched that. It was a TV show a few years ago. It's a fantasy show, and part of the show was in the northern parts of that area, there was a large wall made of ice. And then if you went beyond the wall, it was a very scary place. I think there were. Were they called White Walkers? I can't remember. It's been a while since I read the books and watched that show.But anyways, I'm out here. I'm going to cross the road safely once again, looking both ways twice. Before I cross the road, I wanted to show you that there are tractor tracks here. Farming has begun in Canada. Just a little bit of farming. If you look behind me as I walk, you'll see that every few feet there are tractor tracks. What they've done here is they've done some frost seeding. They probably planted clover in this field. Clover is a seed that you can plant this early in the year and it will eventually grow. I don't think you'll be able to see any. I can see some on the ground here. I don't know how close this camera will go, but there should be some little, almost like freckles on the snow if you can see them. And what those are, are most likely clover seeds. And they will sink throughSupport the show
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Feb 16, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "to blow off steam" and "Don't blow it!"

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 bit of snow on my lens, but hopefully you can see this. In this English lesson I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to blow off steam. Now, when you need to blow off steam, it usually means you go do something physical to relieve some stress you might be experiencing. Here's a great example. If I have a really stressful day at work, I might go for a walk to blow off steam. Let's say at work, I'm not getting along with my boss, and I really like playing basketball. That night I might go and play some basketball to blow off steam. So it's an activity you do, usually a physical activity that helps you to reduce the amount of stress you're feeling. Have you ever exercised when you're stressed and when you're done, you're usually not as stressed. Hey, is the snow the same color as my hair? It probably is. So anyways, to blow off steam means to do a physical activity to help yourself relax, help to reduce the stress that you are feeling.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 don't blow it. So when you blow something, it means you mess it up. So sometimes when you're going to do something that takes some skill, someone might say, don't blow it. It's not a nice thing to say. Basically they're saying, don't mess up. Don't screw up. Don't blow it. When you do that. The very first time I did a live stream, I was a little bit worried. I thought I was going to blow it. I thought I was going to mess up, and it wasn't going to go very well, but it ended up going okay. And the way I look at it is you got to do one so that you can get better at doing the ones that you do later.So to review, to blow off steam means to physically exercise or do something to relieve anxiety and stress. And when you say to someone, don't blow it, you're basically saying, don't make a mistake for whatever the thing you're doing. Don't make a mistake.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I think this is the most snow that's fallen during a video. I'm kind of cracking up. This is from Tammy. I am prone to eating too much, so I avoid going to the kitchen. And my response that's a good strategy. We try to not buy the bad food so it isn't in our house. But it doesn't always work with kids. Have you ever noticed that? I don't know if some of you are in the same situation as me, but when you have children you tend to buy a lot of snack food. And then at least in my situation, I tend to eat lots of that snack food. But hey, anyways, thanks for that comment, Tammy. That is something I'm prone to do as well.Anyways, again, I hope you can see this. I see little flakes of snow landing on the lens. We are finally in a winter wonderland again. And you know that this makes Bob very, very happy. I really enjoy a good winter. I was starting to get worried that maybe we wouldn't see snow again. It certainly is nice to get a little bit of snow so it can land on my head and on my face, I guess a little bit. But yes, certainly appreciating this. It isn't so cold that the creek is frozen. You can see some ducks swimming over there.Actually, you can see one right down here. I think there's a few more coming through, but it's certainly cold enough for us to have a little bit of snowfall insteadSupport the show
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Feb 14, 2024 • 4min

Learn the English Phrases "to be wired for" and "to be prone to"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE WIRED FOR and TO BE PRONE TOIn 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're wired for skating on the ice. It just seems like their brain already knew how to do that. Like, if you can picture wiring in your brain that tells you how to do certain things, they're wired for it. They're just very, very natural at it. I think Jen is wired for growing flowers. She really likes caring for things that are living, like plants and animals. She's just wired for it. So it means that you're good at something in a very natural way. Like you didn't necessarily just learn how to do it. You already had a natural ability to do that thing.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 to be prone to. Now, to me, this phrase sounds similar, but I usually use it to talk about negative things. So to be wired for is about positive things. To be prone to can be negative. Like he's prone to falling off his bicycle. He's prone to eating too much food. When you're prone to something, it means you're likely to do it. And it's sometimes a mistake. Like he's likely to come to class with no pen or pencil to write with. So he's prone to. He's likely to. It's something that will probably happen.So to review to be wired for something means to have a natural ability to do that. Hopefully you're wired for learning English. That will help you a lot. And to be prone to means to regularly make mistakes. I'm prone to making mistakes when I speak French. Quand je parle français, je fais des fautes. Hopefully I said that right? But I am prone to making mistakes.Anyways, let's look at a comment from a previous video. It's a little colder out here than I expected, and I didn't wear my gloves or coat. This is from Dhiraj, I think. Dhirajlama. Very useful phrases. Thank you, teacher. Actually, I have a request for you to make the next video on. Somebody is wired to and somebody is prone to. I hear them a lot, but slightly confused with them. Sometimes they seem similar to me, or maybe I don't have any idea about these two. I would be very delighted if you could work on this request, please. And my response? I'll do that today. Wait, I'll do it today. Not that I'll do it today. See, I'm prone to making mistakes when I speak English as well. Well, thanks for that comment, Dhirajlama. Yes, I did it. I'm done. I made that lesson and hopefully my explanation made some sense to you.Well, hey, like I mentioned, I'm out here today without my coat on. I probably should have worn it. I think I've just gotten used to mild weather and I just leave the house now with no coat on. But I should have worn it. Anyways, some of you have seen this place before. This is my local community center. I'm sure in your country you have things that are similar to this. Our community center has a walking track. It has an ice rink. It has a basketball court that you can also play volleyball or pickleball on. I don't know if you know what pickleball is. It's a new sport that people are starting to play in Canada.It has... this section here is actually the library. I'm not sure if I've ever shown you the inside of that, but it is a very nice place. It took a while for them to get all the money together to build it. And they did have to take down the old arena, which is back. It was back there behind me where thSupport the show
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Feb 9, 2024 • 5min

Learn the English Phrases "Gimme a break!" and "Gimme a sec!"

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 and Jen is trying to get me to work faster. I might say to her, give me a break. I'm working as fast as I can. I'm expressing my frustration a little bit. I'm expressing that I want to go slowly and methodically. I don't want to go fast because I might make a mistake. So I might say, oh, give me a break. You also use this phrase when someone tells you something that just annoys you. So let's say your cousin likes to borrow things and your cousin hasn't returned all of the things that they borrowed from you and they call to borrow something again, you could say, oh, man, give me a break. You still haven't returned my saw and my hammer that you borrowed last week. Give me a break. This is really frustrating.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 give me a sec, which is short for give me a second. This is simply a way to tell someone to wait. If I was doing something and I felt like I needed to sit down for a bit, I might say, hey, give me a second. I'm just going to sit down and maybe have a drink of water. In the summer when it's really hot, you might hear me say this to Jen, hey, give me a sec. I just need to have something to drink. If you're on the phone and someone says, hey, can you tell me how many flowers someone ordered last week? You could say, okay, give me a sec. I'll look up that information. So it's just another way of saying wait.So to review, give me a break is a phrase you use to express frustration in any certain situation. And give me a sec simply means that you need a second or two to do something. You need that person to wait.But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from.... I think it's from Natalia. Let's see here. Yes, Natalia, this is my guess. The barbed wire is tilted towards the park. By the way, I'm there again, if you want to look, the barbed wire is tilted towards the park, probably protecting the road from animals that might run out of the park. And my response, possibly Jen thinks there might have been a train station there. There used to be train tracks, but they were removed years ago. Maybe I'll go back and investigate.And so that's what I'm doing right now. If you're wondering what that loud truck noise was, there's a water truck right there that's leaving. Anyways, I am back here, and I think I do have it figured out. I'm not sure what was behind this fence, but it probably was related to the fact that there used to be train tracks here. If you look across the road, you see those big rocks over there? That's where the train track used to be. And years ago, they removed the train track. And if you look behind me, where these houses are, that's where the train track used to go. So I hope I'm not confusing you.That's why I think we have this really tall chain link fence here. I think it's because there was either a train station or a train refueling station or something here. And obviously a long time ago, because if you look, you'll see that the tree has grown into the fence. And there's another one down here. I'll show you, which is basically part of the fence. So obviously this fence has been here for a very long time. I'm gonna make sure I don't step in any dog poop. TSupport the show

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