In this post, my students are going to practise the third conditional. They’ll listen to one of those delightfully tasteless radio contests where three speakers share their worst holiday disasters – I’m sure some of you can relate to.
At the end of each story, there’s a moral… wrapped neatly in a third conditional sentence. Because what’s a good travel tale without a bit of regret and a grammar point?
First, I’ll ask my students to look at the image below and imagine the situation. What do they think went wrong? Why does this person look so dishevelled? Could he have done something differently?
This is a fun way to activate vocabulary for travel problems and ease them into the third conditional before listening to the podcast.
What types of problems usually happen when travelling?
How many problems can you think of?
Encourage students to share their ideas using collocations like:
- miss a flight
- forget your passport
- lose your luggage
- get food poisoning
- arrive at the wrong airport
- suffer from jet lag
- misunderstand directions
- get ripped off by a taxi
- book the wrong date
- have your wallet stolen
You can list these on the board or have students call them out and vote on the worst one they’ve experienced.
Here’s a Wordwall match activity to brush up or learn vocabulary
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Now it’s time to put your listening skills to the test!
Listen to the podcast episode “And Who Will Be Our Mr or Ms Odd-socks of the Year?” and meet three unlucky travellers.
Can you match each story to the correct character?
👇 Listen carefully and then answer the questions in the quiz below.
Remember: each contestant ends their story with a sentence in the third conditional!
Next step is to revise conditionals and explain the 3rd one. I always keep the short lesson below at handy 👇👇👇
Final Task – Write Your Own Travel Tale
Now it’s your turn to be an honorary odd-sock!
Write a short anecdote (about 80–100 words) describing a travel mishap—real or invented.
The story must end with a sentence using the third conditional.
Example:
I left my phone in a taxi and couldn’t contact my Airbnb host. If I had remembered to check the seat, I wouldn’t have lost it.
Be creative, be honest—or just make it ridiculously silly. The best stories might be shared in our next lesson!