I wish we'd started sooner
Wish · mixed conditionals
Opening week. Everyone has one thing they'd have done differently.
- Level
- B2
- Length
- 50 min
- Exercises
- 4
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About this lesson
A 50-minute B2 lesson on I wish, if only and mixed conditionals, for Polish adults who already know the third conditional. In the café's first week, nobody came on the first morning: the leaflets that should have told the neighbours are still boxed by the door.
Students start with a picture of the empty room and work out in pairs what went wrong. The reference sheet separates a result that is finished from one that is still true now. In the gap-fill, set on the second morning when every table is taken, they build ten verb forms from bare verbs in brackets, guided only by the time words. A discussion in threes about their own regrets ends the lesson. Afterwards they can say what they wish they had done and what would be different today, and answer somebody else's regret without dismissing it.
Express regret about the past and dissatisfaction with the present.
- Grammar
- WISH; mixed conditionals.
- Function
- Expressing reaction, for example indifference; opinion and justification.
- Words (16)
- wishif onlyhindsightsoonermight as wellworth itlook backbring uplet gono pointfair enoughcome round toironicallyadmittedlyon reflectionglad
Why Polish speakers get this wrong
Polish describes many feelings without a grammatical subject: jest mi przykro, szkoda mi, wydaje mi się. The person sits in the dative. Translated word for word, this gives Is sorry to me, It is a pity to me or It seems me. English needs a subject and, with seem, a preposition: I'm sorry, It's a shame, It seems to me.
A lesson about regret produces these sentences in almost every turn, so it plans for them. The reference sheet lists It is a pity to me and It seems me among its four mistakes, with the fix beside each. The teacher notes say to board the two English frames before the first regret is spoken, leave them up, and say a wrong line back correctly rather than stop the talk.
Free guide: I'm sorry, it seems to me: why English feelings need a subject →
50 min · 4 exercises
- 1The first morningPicture description · Lead-in9 min
- 2Then, or now?Grammar cheatsheet · Presentation8 min
- 3The second morningGap fill · Controlled practice14 min
- 4What would be different nowDiscussion questions · Review15 min
The second morning
Write the missing verb in each gap from the verb in brackets, and in most gaps write the person too. The time words in the sentence decide when the result is.
- MARTA: I wish ___ (start) sooner.
- Honestly, if ___ (open) back in March, we ___ (not be) so new at this now.
- TOMEK: If ___ (finish) the tables faster, ___ (open) two weeks earlier.
- DEV: If ___ (put) them through the doors on Monday, this room ___ (not be) empty yesterday.
- ISLA: If ___ (listen to) Dev on Monday, we ___ (not talk) about yesterday at all now.
As printed on the student sheet. Answers are in the teacher pack.
- 1Student pack6 pages · A4 PDF
- 2Teacher pack: plan, notes, answer key11 pages · A4 PDF
Questions about this lesson
What do students need to know before this lesson?
The third conditional. The reference sheet treats if + had done, would have done as known and teaches only the new half: a past cause with a result that is true now, would do. I wish and if only are introduced on the same sheet, as the same past regret in one clause.
Is there a recording?
No. B2.2 runs on a picture, a reference sheet, a gapped conversation and a discussion, so all you need is the printed student pack, 6 pages per learner, and the teacher pack, 11 pages. The picture for the first task is printed on the student sheet.
What is in the teacher notes?
Setup, timing and monitoring advice for each exercise, the mistakes to expect from Polish speakers, a three-criterion rubric for the picture task with a maximum of 9 points, and an answer key that accepts both short and full forms, such as we'd started and we had started.