Learn the English Phrases TO BE IN HOT WATER and TO MUDDY THE WATER

07/16/21 • 4 min

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE IN HOT WATER and TO MUDDY THE WATER

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to be in hot water. We sometimes also say to get in hot water. When you are in hot water, you are in trouble. When you lie to someone and then they find out that you lied to them, you might be in hot water. If I was to say to Jen that I was going out to visit a friend, and instead I went to the casino and started gambling, if Jen found out, I would definitely be in hot water. By the way, I would never do that. I would never lie to Jen. That's just a bad thing to do when you're in a relationship. But certainly, when you do something that someone doesn't want you to do, that person could certainly be annoyed with you and you would then be in hot water. Not a good situation to be in.

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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to muddy the water. When you muddy the water, it's when there's a conversation and you introduce new information that makes everyone a little bit confused. Here's a good example. Let's say we were trying to figure out who stole something from the kitchen cupboard. Well, stole is a strong word. Who took something from the kitchen cupboard. My example is usually the last cookie. We're trying to figure out who took the last cookie. Well, if I said to my son, "Did you eat a cookie last night?" and then I said to my daughter, "Did you eat a cookie last night?" and then if my other son started to talk about how much he likes brownies and whether we should be buying brownies, and if we had brownies instead of cookies, then this wouldn't be a problem, I would say that he is starting to muddy the waters. He's starting to introduce information that has nothing to do with the current conversation, and it's making everyone a little bit confused. So he's starting to muddy the water. We also sometimes say, and I just said it, to muddy the waters.
Anyways, to review. When you are in hot water, if you are in hot water, or if you get in hot water, it means that you are in trouble of some kind, usually because of something you did, maybe a lie or maybe just something that you did to someone. And when you muddy the water, it means that you introduce information that kind of confuses all the people who are having a conversation or a discussion.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Athanasios, and the comment is this. "Thanks for these useful phrases, Teacher Bob. I have a funny feeling that Teacher Bob is going to buy a pizza for the whole family tomorrow at night. LOL! Bon appetit, sir." And my response is this. "Your guess is very close, although it might actually be tonight," which today is Friday, if you're watching this on Friday. "We usually buy pizza on Friday nights, about two times per month. It's the most reasonably priced food from a restaurant."
So thanks, Athanasios. That was a great use of the phrase a funny feeling or the term a funny feeling, but that was excellent. Yes, good job. I was gonna talk a little bit about the pizza that we get every once in a while. I've talked about from time to time, that sometimes, about twice per month, we'll go and we'll buy pizza. I get it from the restaurant that I went into when I made my video of how to speak English at a restaurant on my other channel, because I feel like it's a good idea to support them. They helped me make a video that was quite successful, so I like to go there and buy pizza at least twice a month, sometimes longer.

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO BE IN HOT WATER and TO MUDDY THE WATER

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✅If you enjoy these lessons please consider supporting me at: http://www.patreon.com/bobthecanadian

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Previous Episode

Learn the English Terms FUNNY BUSINESS and FUNNY FEELING

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English terms FUNNY BUSINESS and FUNNY FEELING

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English term funny business. Funny business is a kind of behavior that we don't like. Let me give you a few examples. Sometimes when I'm driving in my car, in the back of the van, I want my children to behave. I don't want any funny business. I don't want them to fight or argue or try to take things from each other. I want them to be happy. I want them to be kind. I don't want any funny business. I also could use this term when talking about students. If I step into the hallway to talk to another teacher, I might say to my class, "Please continue working. I don't want any funny business." That simply means I don't want them to throw things at each other. I don't want them to start fighting with each other, either just by arguing or actually fighting. That never happens, by the way, but I certainly don't want any funny business.

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The second term I wanted to teach you today is the term a funny feeling. When you have a funny feeling, it usually means you think you know what's going to happen in the future. Here's an example sentence. Even though it's a nice day out, I have a funny feeling it might rain today. The wind is blowing a certain way. The clouds in the sky look a little bit strange. I have a funny feeling that it might rain later this afternoon. So a funny feeling is a way to describe your ability to maybe predict the future just a little bit.

Anyways, to review, funny business is any kind of behavior that you don't like to see, either with your children, or if you have students, if you're a teacher, or even with maybe the government. You don't want the government to get up to any funny business. You want them to do their job well and rule the country in an appropriate way. No funny business. And a funny feeling is simply you think that you know how something is going to turn out. I had a funny feeling that Italy was gonna win the soccer game, and I was actually right. I had a funny feeling. I'm not that good at predicting the future, but for some reason, I had a funny feeling that they would win.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Rajendra, and Rajendra says, "Hi, Bob. How are you? Another nice and short lesson from you. Again, I'm mesmerized by the beautiful view behind you. Please bear with me. What is that small hut kind of thing behind you?" And my response was this. "That is actually a wagon that we can close up. We use it a lot in early spring to allow small plants in trays to harden off. This means to get used to colder temperatures, but we don't want them to freeze at night, so we close the wagon." So at a certain point in the year, it's nice and warm during the day here in Ontario, Canada, but it's still quite cold at night, so we have one wagon where we bring small seedlings out to kind of get used to being outdoors. We do start growing them in the house, and this wagon is open.
So you can see, we use it quite a bit at this time of the year, but we have this wagon over here, which is what I think you were referring to, Rajendra. I think you were referring to this wagon. Let me go to the other side.

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Next Episode

Learn the English Phrases TO LOSE YOUR SHIRT and TO LOSE TOUCH

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English Phrases TO LOSE YOUR SHIRT and TO LOSE TOUCH

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to lose your shirt. Now, this can mean that you've actually lost your shirt. Maybe you went to the beach and you took your shirt off and then you lost it and you don't know where it is anymore. But we also use the phrase to lose your shirt to talk about losing money. If someone invests in a company and the company's not very good at doing business, there's a chance that that person might lose their shirt. You might lose your shirt if you invest in a company that's not trustworthy. Another example would be this, I could say, "Oh, my brother's going to the casino next week. "He's not a very good gambler, "he's going to lose his shirt." So when you lose your shirt, it simply means that you've lost a bunch of money. It can mean that you've lost your actual shirt, but we generally use the phrase to talk about a situation where someone loses some money.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to lose touch. Now, this happens when you know someone and then maybe you move to different cities and slowly you just stop communicating with each other, you lose touch with them. It happens a lot with university friends. When you go to university, and then, after you graduate, you tend to move to different cities in the world, and then eventually you lose touch with them. Maybe you send the odd email. Maybe you're still friends with them on Facebook, but because you live far away, you start to lose touch with them. This can also happen with families, and then that's kind of sad. You can lose touch with your brothers and sisters or even lose touch with your parents, which means you just don't spend a lot of time talking anymore. You're not sure what they're up to in their life. That would be sad. It's okay, I think, to lose touch with friends from university or college, I think that's only natural, especially if you live in different countries, it's hard to keep in touch then.
But hey, to review, when you lose your shirt, it means that you've lost a lot of money, or all your money, doing something like a bad investment or gambling. And when you lose touch with someone, it means that you slowly just communicate less and less, almost to the point where you don't communicate at all anymore.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Liu and the comment is this. "Having dinner with family outdoors is awesome. "May I ask, is that picnic table "big enough for your whole family? "Also, do you use camping lanterns at night "when you have dinner in the yard?" So yes, it is big enough for all of us, but we have to squeeze in. So we fit three on a side and then sometimes someone will sit in a lawn chair. We don't use a camping lantern because it's actually light out here until almost 9:30 p.m. right now. One of the benefits of living in a northern country in the summer. So yes, it is big enough. Sometimes four people sit on one side, three on the other. Sometimes someone just stands and eats their pizza or grabs a lawn chair. But the table is definitely big enough for all of us. We certainly fit and we enjoy sitting there and we enjoy eating.
And then the other part of the comment, it is really cool to live in a northern country in the summer. Right now, the sun will go down tonight at 9:00 p.m., I think at 8:54 p.m., the sun will go down. So it's light out here very late in the day.

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