Out of your front door, turn left
Walk out of your front door in your head and turn left. Tell your teacher everything you pass in the first five minutes.
Do not stop when you run out of a word. Point at it in Portuguese and keep walking — we want the gaps, and a gap you hide is a gap we cannot teach into.
Before you walk, a quick check on what you already have. Match each place to what it is for.
Two people, two streets
Ivo · a small town
There is not much here, honestly. There is one supermarket, and it closes at eight. There are two cafés on the main square, and there is a chemist next to the bank. There is no cinema — the nearest one is twenty minutes away by bus. But there is a river at the end of my street, and you can swim in it in summer. You cannot park anywhere near the square on a Saturday.
Fatima · a city neighbourhood
There are four bus routes from my corner, so you can get anywhere. There is a market under the flyover on Tuesdays and Fridays. There is a launderette opposite my building and a takeaway next door to it. There are two schools within ten minutes, which is why the traffic is impossible at half past three. You can walk to the station in twelve minutes. You cannot cycle — there is nowhere safe to do it.
Both texts are built out of the same two structures. Find them before you answer.
1. Almost every sentence starts the same way. How?
2. What decides between There is and There are?
3. Both speakers end with something they cannot do. What structure do they use?
4. Fatima says opposite my building and next door to it. These words tell you…
The trap, named early. Portuguese says na minha rua tem uma padaria. English cannot: in my street has a bakery ✗. English uses there is for existence and have only for possession.
There is a bakery in my street. ✓ · I have a bike. ✓
There is, there are, and the negative
The four forms you need today
| Form | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
There is + singular | one thing exists | There is a chemist on the corner. |
There are + plural | more than one exists | There are two cafés. |
There is no / There isn't a | it does not exist | There is no cinema. |
Is there…? / Are there…? | asking | Is there a bank near here? |
Five sentences, five errors — all of them the same family. Rewrite each one in full.
1. In my street have two shops.
2. There is three buses to the centre.
3. Have a market on Tuesdays?
4. There are not a cinema here.
5. My city has not a metro.
Where exactly
Prepositions of place — the six that do most of the work
| Preposition | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
on | on a surface, or a street | on the corner · on Green Street |
in | inside a space or an area | in the square · in my street (BrE) |
next to | immediately beside | next to the bank |
opposite | facing it, across the road | opposite my building |
between | with one thing on each side | between the bank and the café |
at the end of | the far point of | at the end of my street |
One word per gap. Some gaps want a preposition, some want part of there is / there are.
There a chemist the corner of my street, and there two cafés the square. The launderette is to the newsagent, and the bus stop is the bank — you cross the road to reach it. There no cinema, but there is one the end of the main road.
A set of directions has been scrambled. Put it back in the order someone could actually walk it.
Get someone to your front door
Task card · Speaking
Your teacher is at the nearest station, on foot, with no phone.
Talk them to your front door. Then describe what is within five minutes of it, using there is / there are at least six times.
- They will interrupt with Sorry, where? whenever a direction is unclear. That is not unkindness — it is the task.
- Use at least four different prepositions of place.
- Finish with one thing they can do near you and one thing they cannot.
Two decisions, made now rather than mid-sentence.
1. You want to say there are three bakeries. Which is right?
2. The café faces your building, across the road. Which preposition?
Where you were interrupted
Your teacher interrupted you with Sorry, where? a certain number of times. Answer before you hear it.
1. What caused most of the interruptions?
2. When you did not have a word, what did you do?
Before Lesson 2
Thirty seconds. Match each preposition to the picture it makes.
Informal input, before Lesson 2. The 6 Minute English episode "City life". Listen once without the transcript, then once with it. Write down three things the speakers say exist in their cities.
Copy them exactly. Next lesson you will map a route from audio, and the exact wording is the point.