Learn the English Phrases "to sugarcoat" and "a coat of paint"

05/14/25 • 4 min

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SUGARCOAT and A COAT OF PAINT

Hi. I'll teach the phrase in a moment. I just got to get my gas pumping here. And then I will get started on the phrase to sugarcoat. Let me see here. Almost ready. There we go.

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Well, hi. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sugarcoat. When you sugarcoat something, it means you're giving someone serious news, but you're making it sound not serious. A great example would be if you go to the hospital, maybe you were in an accident and they do some X rays and the doctor comes out and says, well, I'm just gonna say it won't be very long before you're feeling a lot better. You might say to the doctor, please don't sugarcoat it. Just tell me exactly what's wrong. And then the doctor might say, well, you broke your leg and your arm and you're going to have a long recovery. Something super serious like that. So to sugarcoat means to make something serious sound not serious.
The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is a coat of paint. If you look here, this looks like it has a fresh coat of paint on it. My van could use a fresh coat of paint. When we talk about a coat of paint, it's as if when you put the paint on, it forms a coat. Sorry, there's a big, huge truck going by if you're wondering what the loud noise is. But anyways, a coat of paint is just the paint that you put on in one layer. Sometimes you put on two coats of paint, sometimes three.
So to review, to sugarcoat something means to make it sound better than it is. And a coat of paint simply refers to a layer of paint that is on something like a van or this post here.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. Let me check my gas for a sec. $70 already. Wow, it's expensive. This comment is from Meng. Daffodils in England were in full bloom a month or two ago, and now they are past their prime. Oh, I'm done pumping. I should hurry up. And then I responded by saying, I guess you're ahead of us then. Also, great use of the face... of the phrase past their prime. Yeah, it's a good phrase. When something's past its prime, it means it isn't. Isn't doing well anymore. It's getting old and not in its. Well, in its prime. I was gonna say in its heyday, which is another way of saying it.
So how much is gas here? Let me have gas is $1.35.9 cents. Gas in Canada has gotten a little bit cheaper. But honestly, I have a bit of a dilemma because if I go to the city, gas is right now 10 cents a liter cheaper in the city for some reason. I don't know why, but it's 10 cents a liter cheaper. So the problem I have is do I drive to the city and use extra gas to fill up my van so that it's cheaper? Or do. Or do I just buy the more expensive gas?
So hey, some of you might be wondering, I think in a previous video, I don't know on which channel, I talked about how this van had to go to the garage for some work. It smelled like gas. It ended up being something fairly simple. It was less than $200 to get it fixed. So I'm happy that my little blue van is still on the road and still doing well. Hopefully it lasts a long time because we need it to. So yeah, I tanked it up with gas and it's good for a little while yet. By the way, only I drive this van. My kids have decided they like the newer car better and the red van is, I think, more reliable. So it's just me now. Me and my blue van, which some people think is gray, but I think it's blue. Maybe let me know in the comments below what color you think this van is.
Anyways, thanks for watching. I'll see you in a

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Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO SUGARCOAT and A COAT OF PAINT

Hi. I'll teach the phrase in a moment. I just got to get my gas pumping here. And then I will get started on the phrase to sugarcoat. Let me see here. Almost ready. There we go.

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Previous Episode

Learn the English Phrases "to cover your tracks" and "to cover all the bases"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO COVER YOUR TRACKS and TO COVER ALL THE BASES

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to cover your tracks. Now, if you do something and you don't want anyone to know you did it, you might want to cover your tracks. Let's say there are cookies in the kitchen and I'm not supposed to eat them. I might go to the tray of cookies and eat two and then I might move the other cookies so it looks like they're filling the plate. Still. I'm trying to cover my tracks. You also hear this phrase when you watch a show where there are criminals. After a criminal commits a crime, they might try to cover their tracks. They might put everything back the way it was. Let me see, let's say they were stealing money from a safe. They would probably close the safe and make everything in the place where they are stealing the money from look the same way as when they got there. They try to cover their tracks.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase to cover all the bases. This means to make sure that you do everything in a situation. Let's say you're working on a project at work. You want to make sure that you cover all the bases. When you work on that project, you want to make sure that manufacturing goes well. You want to make sure that design goes well. You want to make sure that you have thought about and taken care of all of the aspects of the project. You want to cover all the bases.
So to review to cover your tracks means to make it look like you haven't been there. I've actually done that after I've eaten cookies before. I rearranged them on the plate so it looks like the plate is still full. And then to cover all the bases means to make sure that you take care of all aspects of a project.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Minosmil. I can imagine Bob and Jen going on a trip, but I'm not able to picture Bob the Canadian without pizza. And my response it would be hard! Right now. We make homemade pizza for supper once a week. It's my favorite night. Yes. So thanks Minosmil for that comment. Yes, I can imagine going on a trip. If I go on a trip, I'm hoping wherever I go that there's pizza there because I still like it. What an amazing food. Crust, cheese, sauce, some meat on top of it's just amazing. Hey, what was I going to say? I was going to say something else. I can't remember Jen and I going on a trip. That should happen at some point in our lives, probably.
So here's what I wanted to show you. We're a little behind right now in this part of Ontario, Canada. If you look here on the lilac tree, you'll see they're just starting to get their little flowers. And usually this has happened already. I should pause a little bit and stop moving so you can see. And then over here we have some purple ones. There's actually not a lot on this tree either. Hopefully I'm not too close. Hopefully you can see, if I go too close, it doesn't focus. So hopefully in the next little while things warm up a bit.
Jen and I need to start our farmers market in four weeks and things aren't growing as fast as they normally grow. We had a burst of growth, like the daffodils started growing really well. If you look over here, you can see there are some daffodils there. These aren't ones that we grow and sell, but definitely it needs to warm up a bit around here. The trees are starting to get leaves, so that's cool. But, yeah, it's like, you can see I have my sweater on again today. So it's another cool day here. And yeah, we need the su

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Next Episode

Learn the English Phrases "the wrong side of the bed" and "to make the bed"

Read along to practice your English and to learn the English phrases TO GET UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED and TO MAKE THE BED

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to get up on the wrong side of the bed or to wake up on the wrong side of the bed or to get out of the wrong side of the bed. There's a lot of different variations to this phrase, but basically it means that you're in a bad mood. If I was crabby and cranky, Jen might say, hey, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed? I wanted to make sure I said this version of the phrase, did you get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? And that would simply mean, wow, did you not sleep good, did you have a bad sleep, and now you're in a bad mood.
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The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is simply to make the bed. This is what you do after you get up. You put the pillows nice at the top of your bed and you put the blankets nice and flat. We have what's called a sheet, and then we have a comforter. And we just kind of make the bed every morning after we get up. So we put all the blankets nice and flat and tidy.
So to review, to get up on the wrong side of the bed or to wake up on the wrong side of the bed, or to get up out of the wrong side of the bed, however you say it, it means you're in a bad mood. And to make the bed simply means. Yeah, to put all of the blankets and sheets flat so they look nice.
So let's look at a comment from a previous video. If you're wondering why I'm out of sorts, it's so bright out here, I have to find my sunglasses. You know, you'll notice I can hardly keep my one eye open. I'm not sure if the camera communicates that.
But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Ismail. Hi, Bob. That sign that says more points, more ways on the gas pump, I think it's about a rewards program like getting points when you buy gas. But I wasn't sure how it works exactly in that place. Just curious, what's it all about? And my response, yes, you get points when you buy gas. This is from the video from a couple days ago at the gas station. You can then use the points to get 4 cents a liter off your purchase. I think you need about 4,000 points to do that.
So thanks, Ismail, for that question. Yeah, at our gas station and at a lot of places, you get points if you buy certain things and then you can use Those points like money. I don't know how many points you get for a tank of gas, but I do know that every once in a while I have enough points that I can get 4 cents a liter off.
So what am I doing here? I wanted to show you dandelions. So we are in prime dandelion season. Dandelions are, of course, these little yellow flowers that show up in lawns probably in a lot of different places in the world. I'm kind of curious whether you have dandelions where you live or not. For the next week or so, there will be a lot of dandelions around. Like, this is a local soccer field. They do a lot of work here to make sure the grass is nice and green. But the dandelions, they still come. They are pretty good at growing almost everywhere in Ontario, Canada.
I don't want to go over there, but in the distance, there's actually some sort of school event. It's not my school. I wonder if it's a track and field meet. A track and field meet is where you run the 100 meter, the 800 meter. You do long jump and triple jump and all those other kinds of events. Because there's children involved. I don't want to walk over there. They want their privacy and just not a good idea. If I'm in a public place, like when I'm at the publ

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Bob's Short English Lessons - Learn the English Phrases "to sugarcoat" and "a coat of paint"

Transcript

Hi. I'll teach the phrase in a moment. I just got to get my gas pumping here. And then I will get started on the phrase to sugarcoat. Let me see here. Almost ready. There we go.

Well, hi. In this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to sugarcoat. When you sugarcoat something, it means you're giving someone serious news, but you're making it sound not serious. A great example would be if you go to the hospital, maybe you were in an accident and they do some X rays