Four names on one lease
Relative clauses · passives
The viewing, the argument about the smallest room, and four signatures.
- Level
- B2
- Length
- 60 min
- Exercises
- 5
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About this lesson
A 60-minute B2 lesson on the passive, reported speech and relative clauses, for Polish adults who need to negotiate in English and then report what was agreed. After the viewing of the flat above the café, the four have until six to agree how the rent is split, and nobody wants the smallest room. It is the last lesson of the course.
Students match twelve lease words to meanings, each written as a relative clause. The reference sheet sets passives beside reported speech, and eight rewrites practise both. Pairs then negotiate on role cards, Tomek against Isla, report the result to somebody from another table, swap cards and argue again. The lesson ends with Marta's letter to the landlord: ten sentences to correct. Afterwards students can put a proposal forward, agree in principle, and report who said what.
Negotiate a shared agreement, justify your position, and report what was agreed.
- Grammar
- Relative clauses, full range; passives, full range; reported speech, full range.
- Function
- Opinion and justification; developing an argument; taking the initiative in interaction.
- Words (18)
- leasejoint tenancyguarantorinventoryground flooren suitecompromiseput forwardtalk roundin principlesubject toon the understanding thatdeferallocatemutuallybindingsign offhouse rules
Why Polish speakers get this wrong
Polish carries formality in the grammar: pan, pani and a verb in the third person. English has no equivalent, so a learner who drops the pan is left with a bare instruction: You must sign here. Polish daj or zrób sound neutral to the speaker, but give me the ground floor sounds like a row in English. Politeness has to come from word choice: Would you mind signing here?
The role-play gives each pair a phrase bank for this: In principle, yes, but not like that; I take the point, but I cannot sign off on that tonight; on the understanding that the rest is agreed on Saturday. The teacher notes say to treat a blunt request as a missing phrase, not rudeness, and point at the bank. Marta's letter to the landlord needs the same register.
Free guide: Formality without pan and pani: how to sound polite in English →
60 min · 5 exercises
- 1What the lease words meanMatching · Presentation8 min
- 2What was agreed, and who said soGrammar cheatsheet · Presentation8 min
- 3Say it without saying whoSentence transformation · Controlled practice13 min
- 4The smallest roomRole play · Freer practice15 min
- 5Marta writes to the landlordError correction · Review10 min
Say it without saying who
Rewrite with the same meaning, from the opening. Ten words or fewer after it.
- Nobody has allocated the smallest room. / The smallest room ...
- The agency promised Marta and Tomek an answer by six o'clock. / Marta and Tomek ...
- Somebody must sign off the inventory on Saturday. / The inventory must ...
- At three Dev Sharma said to Marta, "You and Tomek need a guarantor." / Dev told ...
- At three Marta said, "We will sign the lease this afternoon." / Marta said that ...
As printed on the student sheet. Answers are in the teacher pack.
- 1Student packs A + B (role cards)14 pages · A4 PDF
- 2Teacher pack: plan, notes, answer key15 pages · A4 PDF
Questions about this lesson
Three grammar areas in one hour: how does that work?
Each gets a different job. Relative clauses are met in the vocabulary match, where every meaning is written as one. Passives and reported speech share the reference sheet and the eight rewrites. All three are spoken in the role-play, and the relative-clause comma comes back in the final error correction.
Does it use role cards?
Yes. Two cards, Tomek and Isla, each with a situation on the front and a goal on the back. Pairs negotiate, report the result to somebody who was not at their table, then swap cards and argue the other side. The teacher notes say not to decide the smallest room for anybody.
How long does it take, and what do I print?
60 minutes: 8 for the words, 8 for the reference sheet, 13 for the rewrites, 15 for the role-play and 10 for the letter. There is no recording. The student pack has 14 pages, including the role cards, and the teacher pack has 15.