Excuses, excuses!

Megan | Feb 14, 2025Sep 11, 2025

LESSON OVERVIEW

The main objectives of this ESL lesson on excuses are to:

• discuss common reasons and excuses people use in daily life;
• learn and practise common phrases to make excuses;
• watch a video about excuses to explain being late for work;

With this lesson, students talk about excuses, explore statistics related to being late for work and watch a short news story about the best excuses for being late. They also share their own experiences, practise phrases to make excuses (e.g. The thing is, …, This is really unlike me, …, You see, …, etc.) and work in pairs making and responding to excuses.

WARM-UP AND VIDEO

This ESL lesson on excuses begins with a warm-up. Students discuss questions about excuses people give in everyday situations and their reasons. After that, they watch the first part of a video about excuses to explain being late for work. Students tick the excuses that are mentioned. Next, they watch the second part of the video which talks about how employers feel about their employees being late. Before they do, students guess the answers by matching halves of statements. Then, they watch and check their answers. Following that, students discuss questions about being late for work, unusual excuses and their own experiences. 

PHRASES TO MAKE EXCUSES

At this point in this ESL lesson on excuses, students match statements with excuses (e.g. Why are you so late? The movie started 40 minutes ago. – I was going to, but my kids got sick.). Following that, they complete gaps in statements (e.g. I was going to, but I thought you’d rather do it yourself.). Then, students add some details about each situation. Next, they complete responses in dialogues using phrases to make excuses (e.g. You see…, I was going to, but…, This is really unlike me, …, etc.). Finally, students work in pairs with a set of cards. Student A picks a card and asks Student B the question on it. Student B comes up with an excuse, using the phrases to make excuses. Student A asks one or more follow-up questions about their excuse. Then, they switch roles.

HOMEWORK/REVISION

This lesson plan also includes an additional task that you can use as homework or revision. In the task, students create excuses for situations using the target phrases from the lesson. The task is available in the teacher’s version of the worksheet. You can print it and hand it out to your students. It’s also included in the e-lesson plan.

WORKSHEETS

12

0