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Lesson 85 / Learning & responsibility
5 phrases · 12 minutes · Look, listen and try.
Notice mistakes, check progress and record ways to improve.
Match words to pictures →Play What is She/He doing? →
A randomly assigned, fixed male or female synthetic voice for each phrase or sentence · Slow playback at 0.7× preserves pitch.
I slipped up and wrote the wrong date.
I slipped up and wrote the wrong date.
Everyone slips up sometimes.
Everyone slips up sometimes.
An informal way to describe an accidental mistake. It does not necessarily mean physically slipping; the past form is “slipped up”.
Cambridge Dictionary · slip up
I owned up to breaking the pencil.
I owned up to breaking the pencil.
He owned up and helped clean the table.
He owned up and helped clean the table.
Use “to” before the mistake or an -ing action. Here it means admitting responsibility, rather than owning an object.
I will check on your progress after the break.
I will check on your progress after the break.
The teacher checked on us during the activity.
The teacher checked on us during the activity.
The focus is on checking well-being or progress, rather than examining every error as in “check over”. Do not separate the phrase.
Jot down the new date before you forget it.
Jot down the new date before you forget it.
I jotted her number down on a small card.
I jotted her number down on a small card.
Similar to “note down”, with an emphasis on a short, quick note. The past form is “jotted down”.
I will follow up our lesson with some extra practice.
I will follow up our lesson with some extra practice.
We followed up the first discussion with another short meeting.
We followed up the first discussion with another short meeting.
This means taking further action on something already started. Add “with” to name the next action; it does not simply mean walking behind someone.
The examples were written for this course. Usage was checked against Matt Errey’s book, pages 118, 92, 21, 69, 46. A2–B1 is the course’s intended level.
One step forward every day
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Sentences using suggestions are counted as needing more practice. Review schedule based on each phrase's meaning.
OBSERVE · UNDERSTAND · MATCH
Drag a wire from the dot beside a phrase to the dot beside its matching picture. You can also tap a phrase, then a picture. Drag again to change a pair before checking.
Read the picture descriptions for more context. Similar expressions are accepted when they fit the particular scene.
Nhi notices an arithmetic slip in her exercise; the 6 is crossed out and corrected to 5, with five counters to check the answer.
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Nhi raises her hand to admit spilling the pencil box in front of her teacher, looking honest.
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Nhi checks how a friend is getting on with an exercise and is ready to help.
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Nhi quickly notes a reminder in a small notebook after her teacher’s feedback.
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Nhi brings her revised work to the teacher to follow up on feedback from the previous session.
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Choose a phrase to begin.
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Read the conversation and find the expressions you have learned.
I slipped up when I copied the date.
I slipped up when I copied the date.
Thank you for owning up. Let us check on the booking.
Thank you for owning up. Let us check on the booking.
I will jot down the correct date and follow up tomorrow.
I will jot down the correct date and follow up tomorrow.
“Slip up” means make a mistake; “own up” means admit wrongdoing. An admission can help address the mistake without undoing it.
Try answering before revealing the suggested answer. This practice is not scored.
The answers below are models. Other answers can also work if they preserve the facts, meaning and structure requested in the task.
An assistant accidentally prints the wrong date. He decides to admit it and check the corrected booking later.
Describe the mistake.
He slipped up when he printed the date.
The assistant accidentally printed the wrong date, so he “slipped up”; admitting it is the later “own up”.
Complete: I should own ___ to the mistake.
up
“Own up to the mistake” keeps “up to” before the admitted error; “up” cannot be omitted.
Write his follow-up promise.
I will follow up tomorrow to confirm the corrected booking.
“Follow up tomorrow to confirm…” promises to check the corrected booking tomorrow, beyond admitting today’s error.
The usage comparisons are checked against the Cambridge Dictionary entries linked beside the compared expressions. The additional conversations and exercises are written for this course.
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