Unit 7: Career changes
Past perfect tense
Select a unit
- 1Pop-ups
- 2Hidden talents
- 3Can't buy me love
- 4Travellers' tales
- 5The colleague from hell
- 6Jurassic mystery: unpacking the past
- 7Career changes
- 8Art
- 9Project management
- 10The dog ate my homework!
- 11The diary of a double agent
- 12Fashion forward
- 13Flat pack skyscrapers
- 14Extreme sports
- 15Food fads
- 16Me, my selfie and I
- 17Endangered animals
- 18A nip and a tuck: cosmetic surgery
- 19I'm really sorry...
- 20Telling stories
- 21Fakes and phrasals
- 22Looking to the future
- 23Becoming familiar with things
- 24From rags to riches
- 25Against the odds
- 26Our future on Mars?
- 27Where is it illegal to get a fish drunk?
- 28Dodgy dating
- 29Annoying advice
- 30I'll have been studying English for thirty weeks
Session 3
How do you prepare someone for disappointment? There's some apologising to do at the offices of Tip Top Trading. Find out why and learn some useful phrases.
Activity 2
Your turn
Preparing someone for disappointment
How well do you know these expressions? In this activity you need to prepare people for bad news. What's the best way to let them know they're not going to get what they expected? Let's see if you can use the expressions from this session correctly.
ነቲ ጽሑፍ ብምንባብ ነቲ ስራሕ ዕመምዎ

To do
You have to decide on the best option to complete the sentences. When selecting your answer, try to:
1. Make sure your answer fits the meaning of the sentence.
2. Make sure it matches the form introduced in this session.
3. Make sure your answer is polite, if appropriate.
Choosing the right thing to say
6 Questions
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ሓገዝ
Activity
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ኣመት
What small word means she is about to give some disappointing news?Question 1 of 6
ሓገዝ
Activity
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ኣመት
Is it good or bad news?Question 2 of 6
ሓገዝ
Activity
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ኣመት
Remember you need to apologise - that means sound sorry!Question 3 of 6
ሓገዝ
Activity
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ኣመት
Something unplanned happened.Question 4 of 6
ሓገዝ
Activity
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ኣመት
Check the order of the words.Question 5 of 6
ሓገዝ
Activity
Choose the correct option to make a polite and accurate English sentence, using phrases from this session.
ኣመት
Who is most disappointed?Question 6 of 6
Excellent!Great job!ሕማቕ ዕድል!ዘመዝገብኩምዎ ነጥቢ ...:
End of Session 3
That's all for Session 3. We hope you enjoyed hearing from the English at Work team and learnt some useful expressions about preparing someone for disappointment.
In Session 4 the topic is changing careers. Have you ever wanted to change yours? Learn some useful language and share your thoughts with us!
ናይ ስዋስው ክፍሊ
Preparing someone for a disappointment: phrases and use of 'but'
1. I'm really sorry to let you down + but... [explain the problem]
Examples:
I'm really sorry to let you down but someone obviously got their apples mixed up with their avocados.
I'm really sorry to let you down but there was a mix-up with our paperwork.
2. Sorry to disappoint you + but… [explain the problem or how you're going to solve it]:
Sorry to disappoint you but we haven't got any more Awesome Apples in stock to send you.
Sorry to disappoint you but I will do all I can to sort out the problem.
How to explain why something went wrong:
It's not how we planned it + but... [explain what has happened]
Examples:
It's not how we planned it but something has gone wrong.
It's not how we planned it but there was a problem in our warehouse which we are now sorting out.