Before Leaving the Guesthouse: Check for People and Belongings

Four adults are leaving a guesthouse. Read their messages and help them make a final check. This A2 lesson takes about 30 minutes. Try 12 short questions and two writing tasks. The people and guesthouse are fictional.

Read the departure checklist

Follow the message thread

Lena: I am in the sitting room. There is something on the sofa: a blue scarf. I do not know whose scarf it is. I will put it on the small table.

Miko: I have checked every drawer. There is nothing left in them. I looked under the beds too, but I did not find anything there. My own bag is already outside.

Ari: The bedrooms are empty. No one is upstairs now. I have checked both rooms and closed the windows. I am going to the front door with my bag.

Dev: Everyone is at the front door now. All four of us are here. I have put all the room keys in the basket for the owner. The basket is beside the door.

Lena: Does anyone own the blue scarf? Please check your bags. Nobody has answered yet, so we still do not know who owns it. We need somewhere quiet to check the last thing on our list. Let’s use the small sitting room before we leave.

Choose the meaning

Complete and correct messages

Write a clear final update

Your turn · self-review

Use it yourself

Make your own answer before opening the model. Other accurate answers are possible. Use the checklist to review meaning and form.

Practice only. Your writing stays on this page; it is not submitted or saved.

1. 1Write 60–80 words for the group. Say what has been checked, where the people are and what is still unknown. Use only the facts in the messages.
   Model answer and explanation

   Everyone is at the front door, and no one is upstairs. Miko has checked every drawer, and there is nothing left inside. Miko did not find anything under the beds. The keys are in the basket beside the door. There is still a blue scarf on the small table. Nobody has said whose scarf it is. We need to check that before we leave. Checklist: people, objects and places are clear; the unknown owner stays unknown; singular is follows everyone and no one.

2. 2Write three final-check questions: one about a person, one about a thing and one about a place. Do not invent answers.
   Model answer and explanation

   Does anyone own this scarf? Have we left anything behind? Is there somewhere quiet to check the list? Other questions are possible. Check that anyone refers to a person, anything to a thing and somewhere to a place.

Review the evidence

The scarf exists, so Lena uses something. Its owner is unknown, so she asks whether anyone owns it. The drawers are empty, so nothing fits. Every adult is at the door, so everyone fits. Do not write that the scarf belongs to Lena; the messages do not tell us its owner.

Two standard negative patterns can give the same fact: “Miko didn’t find anything” and “Miko found nothing”. Use one pattern at a time. Also check the position of adjectives: somewhere quiet and something useful.

Transfer the checklist

Possible answer: “No one is in the room. There is nothing in the drawers. Someone has left a notebook on a chair. Does anyone know whose notebook it is?” These sentences report the facts without guessing a name.