Learn the English Phrases "past their prime" and "prime time"

04/18/25 • 4 min

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 when they're 35 or 36, that they are past their prime. It's not a nice phrase, is it? I do not look forward to the day where I'm teaching a class and some parent says, Bob, that guy is past his prime, it's time for him to retire. I don't think I'm anywhere close yet, but that would not be a nice thing to hear. But often used to talk about professional athletes when they're in their 30s. It's common to read a news article or hear someone on TV say that they are past their prime. Again, not very flattering, not very kind.
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 is prime time. This is kind of an older phrase. This refers to TV shows that are on between 8 and 10 or 7 and 11. There's a bit of a... There's a... There's a couple different ideas as to what it means, but it means the time where people normally, I guess, used to watch TV. Now there's streaming and YouTube and all kinds of other things to do from 7 to 11. But prime time meant a TV show that was on between 7 and 11 at night. So for me it's usually game shows from 7 to 8. So there's Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. And then at 8 o'clock I don't often sit down to watch a TV show anymore. I might watch a Blue Jays game, but those are on at prime time sometimes as well. They start at 7 or 7:30 at night. Anyways, prime time, the best time to get a lot of viewers to watch something.
So to review. When someone is past their prime, it means that they were good at something and now they're not as good at it because they're getting older, they've peaked and now they're kind of going downhill. And then prime time would be any TV show that's on between 8 and 10 or 7 and 11, whatever you choose.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from. Know that as for your example of the shirt with the hole in it, Bob, if it were one of your favorite shirts, you could possibly wear a sweater over it in a pinch. Assuming of course that the weather is right for a sweater and how many holes it has, how big they are and where. I know that was just an example and as always, a really good one from you. Thank you so much, Bob. You're awesome in so many ways. Have a great day.
And my response, yeah, I've done that from time to time. In fact, I'm doing it right now. Yeah, I went and found what is my favorite shirt. It's too bad that shirts get. The shirt is past its prime there. I could use the example as well. It's too bad when things get old. This doesn't have holes in it, but it's actually. It's just starting to wear out a little bit where you can't see. So I can't wear it unless I wear a sweater or a top like this over top of it.
So anyways, the lawn chairs are back out. You might have noticed that in a previous video. We put them back out a week or two ago. This has just become a beautiful spot to sit in the spring, summer and fall. For Jen and I. It's shady in the morning right now. It's about 9am so it's nice. We put them away for the winter and now they're back. We've also removed one row, one row of the little markers from the driveway. We have to remove these at some point. The dogs were starti

Support the show

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases PAST THEIR PRIME and PRIME TIME

Support the show

Previous Episode

Learn the English Phrases "a textbook example" and "to set a bad example"

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 taught in a textbook, but we sometimes use it in a funny way. Here's a good example. If you're watching a football game or what I call soccer, and there's a corner kick and the person kicks it and the ball bends nicely and goes right into the top far corner of the net, we would say, that's a textbook example of how to do a corner kick. That's how, if there was a textbook that taught you how to kick the ball, that's what they would teach you. To kick it in a way where it bends and hooks right above the goalie or goaltender and goes into the net. That would be a textbook example.
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
So the other phrase I wanted to teach you today is to set a bad example. Now, if I was to wear jeans to school or really old shirts with holes in them, that would be a bad example. I would be setting a bad example for the students. When we have students in school that don't behave, that sets a bad example for the other students. They might think because that one student is misbehaving, they can misbehave as well. So when you set a bad example, you do something that encourages other people to do the same, even though it's a bad thing. If I speed in my van, I would be setting a bad example for my own children.
So to review a textbook example is like something that happens in real life that's done so well. You think, oh, they could. If they taught this. This is how they would teach it in a textbook. A textbook example. And to set a bad example simply means to do something that encourages other people to do that bad thing as well.
But, hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from the paper got all crumpled in my pocket. I've been a number of places between school and here. Here we go. From Bryce. It's nice to see you, Unc Bob, which is short for uncle. And my response, it's good to be back in action. So, Bryce, thank you for that. I picked that one because I always giggle a little bit because in some places in the world I'm apparently known as Uncle Bob. In some Asian countries, I think it is what we call an honorific. It's a term we use when we respect someone. We might call them uncle, even though they aren't technically our uncle. So I'll take it. If you guys want to call me Uncle Bob at some point, that's fine. I have the gray hair to be like an old wise uncle, so we'll go with that.
Where am I today? I'm getting water. Some of you have been here before with me. This is the place where I come to fill my water jugs. I've already filled them. You can see here that it says small container fill station. Please push and pull handle slowly. Although they've replaced it with a switch now. And then you can read that if you want to take the time, hit pause. And then also, they don't like it when people hook a hose up directly to the tap. So that's where I am today. I just filled the jugs. And so we have a little bit of drinking water again for the rest of the week.
We don't drink as much in the in the late winter, early spring as we do in the summer. But it is important. The water we have at home is not really good to drink. It's in the cistern. We do keep it clean enou

Support the show

Next Episode

Learn the English Phrases "mistaken identity" and "identity crisis"

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 the same size. And you run up and you say, Bob! And the person turns around and it's not me. That would be a case of mistaken identity. I used this phrase in a comment below the last video because someone said something like, you never answer my question. You just answer the questions like, how are you doing? Or you talk about what equipment you used. And I'm like, this must be a case of mistaken identity, because I answer almost every question.
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 the phrase identity crisis. When someone has an identity crisis, it's like they don't know who they are. So here's a good example. Sometimes people who are 17 or 18 go to university. They don't know what they want to be. They kind of have a bit of an identity crisis. They don't know if they want to be a doctor or maybe they want to be a teacher or maybe they want to be an engineer. They're kind of lost and they don't even really know who they are. They're having an identity crisis, a crisis where they're not sure what they're supposed to be or even who they are right now.
So to review, when there is a case of mistaken identity, it means that, let's say the police arrest someone and then they're like, oh, wrong person, sorry, it was a case of mistaken identity. You matched the description of the person we were looking for. And when someone has an identity crisis, it means they're, you know, they're just not sure who they are or what they're supposed to be in life. Sometimes people have this in the middle of their life as well, where they're just. They don't like their job and they're just sort of unhappy and they have a bit of an identity crisis.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. I'm not going to read the whole comment, but you can pause and read some of it. It's from Alaa Ahmad. Hello, Mr. Bob. Yesterday I dreamt that you became the Prime Minister of Canada as a successor to the former Prime Minister. Justin. I was proud, pointed to you telling my family that you are one of my best Canadian teachers. But then I stopped doubting that you will recognize me as a follower after becoming the Prime Minister. I was surprised to see you using the word prime in my last lesson. What a coincidence. Be honest, Bob. Are you planning to be a politician? And my response? Maybe when I retire, I'll become Prime Minister. It looks like the job of leadership is going to quite old people if you look at the U.S. the United States. So thanks, Alaa Ahmad, for that comment.
And actually, no, I don't have any plans to go into leadership or to be a politician. But yeah, I guess in the United States, if you're over the age of 75, you can be the president. That's how it works in that country. I guess I have a few years to go before I do that.
Hey, I wanted to show you a sign of spring here. I think I showed you this last year and my videos are getting a little bit repetitive, but that's okay in my book. I think these are. I think even in the last video I didn't know what they were then. I think Jen said they were forsythia. Not 100% sure, but some beautiful yellow for your sp

Support the show