Idioms: suggestions and offers

With this lesson, learners explore useful English idioms and expressions for making suggestions and responding to offers by expressing willingness, agreement, hesitation, or strong refusal. The target language is commonly used in everyday spoken English and gives learners more natural ways to discuss plans, suggestions, opinions, and decisions.

Activities Overview

In Activity 1, students read a short dialogue about making plans with friends and identify the meanings of several common idioms for suggestions and offers. Expressions such as float an idea, you read my mind, we’ve been down this road before, take a rain check, put out some feelers, and sounds like a plan are matched with their definitions. Next, students read different situations and decide which expression from Activity 1 would be appropriate in each context. This gives learners practice recognising the meaning and communicative purpose of the idioms in realistic everyday situations.

In Activity 3, learners are introduced to another group of useful idioms for expressing suggestions, support, opinions, and indirect communication. They read the definitions and complete a short dialogue with expressions including put a bug in my ear, be on board, drop hints, my two cents, and food for thought.  Then, students rewrite sentences using the expressions from Activity 3 while keeping the original meaning as close as possible.

In Activity 5, students create short dialogues by matching sentence beginnings with suitable responses. They then discuss what the expressions mean and how they might be used in conversation. The activity introduces and practises expressions such as it’s worth a shot, give it a go, I’d be game, I’m all for it, over my dead body, and when hell freezes over.

In Activity 6, learners respond to a range of personal and hypothetical situations using expressions from the lesson. They discuss possibilities such as moving abroad, changing careers, starting a business, getting a tattoo, giving up their phone, or travelling for an extended period. This provides an opportunity for more personalised speaking practice while reinforcing the target idioms.

In Activity 7, students take part in extended pair or small-group conversations based on different real-life situations. They take turns making suggestions and responding to them using expressions from the lesson, keeping the conversation going and working towards a final decision. This encourages learners to use idiomatic language more spontaneously and communicatively.

In Activity 8, students discuss a variety of topics using the expressions from the lesson. They make suggestions about hobbies, work, business, birthdays, home improvements, changing jobs, and long weekends. They also discuss challenging decisions, things they would never agree to, changes they would like to see at work or in society, and activities they might politely decline. This final activity provides freer speaking practice and encourages learners to personalise the target language.

For more speaking practice, you can use the printable conversation cardssy