Excuses, excuses, excuses…

In this C1 ESL lesson, students learn about making excuses and acquire the necessary skills to use the third conditional – its structure and use.

Introduction

The lesson starts with an explanation of excuses. The student shares their experience of coming up with excuses.

Grammar: Third conditional

The third conditional is thoroughly explained and exemplified. This is followed by an exercise in which the student completes third conditional sentences using correct verb forms. Then, they match clauses to get third conditional sentences.

Next, the student makes an excuse using the third conditional based on the picture.
Finally, the student rephrases sentences using the third conditional.

Video: Hilarious ‘late for school’ excuses

The student watches a video in which parents make excuses for bringing their child to school late. They transform these excuses into third conditional sentences.