THE LANDLADY. LET/ALLOW

Helloo dudes!

Do you like eerie tales?

The Landlady is a short story written by Roald Dahl in 1959. Roald Dahl was able to write many types of genres. He had always wanted to write ghost stories, he tried with The Landlady but he finally changed the end and gave it a different flavour. There are no ghosts here but there are other things that can scare you the most...

Here you have a short film based on the plot on this famous story:

1. Watch the film and answer the following questions:

a. Why does Bill decide to knock on the door of this B&B?

b. When does Bill start feeling suspicious about the landlady?

c. What does the landlady do with her pets?

d. Why did the landlady want Bill to have tea with her?

Did you like it? Was it spooky enough? Well, talking about landlords, landladies and rents...

A term that's necessarily related to rules is permission. Today we will use a similar setting, to analyse words that are commonly used to express permission, let and allow

2. Listen to the conversation and fill in the gaps with the phrases below. THE RENT

could let him - cost a fortune - can't allow - can't make - knock off - let him

THE RENT

Helen: Dad, Khalid likes the room, and he wants to move in, but he wants to know if you can (1) ...... a bit ........ the rent.

Helen's dad: Helen, you know I (2) ....................... it. Everybody has to pay the same.

Helen: I know dad, but we put the advert in the Gazette for 2 weeks, and he's the only person who's anywhere near suitable. It's going to (3) ........................ if you have to keep advertising.

Helen's dad: But why couldn't you find anybody through the ad?

Helen: I don't know dad, I (4) ........................... people call. All I know is, Khalid's just right for the room, but if you want him to move in, you'll have to (5)..................... have a discount.

Helen's dad: Well, I suppose I (6)........................ have a small reduction. But what are you going to say to Alice and Tim?...

Let

If you 'let' somebody do something, you give permission or you allow them to do something.

When 'let' means 'allow' or 'give permission', it is followed by an object and the bare infinitive (infinitive without 'to').

subject + let+ object+ infinitive without 'to'+ complement

Be careful: 'let' is NOT followed by 'to', and it is NOT followed by an -ing form:

• The teacher let us to leave early - WRONG

• The teacher let us leaving early - WRONG

• The teacher let us leave early - RIGHT

Allow

It has a similar meaning to 'let', it is used to give permission. Allow can be used in 2 ways: 1. It is followed by an object. The object can be a noun, or it can be an -ing form.

subject+ allow+ object+ complement

"I don't allow eating in the classroom"

2. It is followed by an object (noun or pronoun) and the infinitive with 'to'.

subject+ allow+ object+ infinitive with 'to'+ complement

"She doesn't allow us to have our snacks inthe classroom"

Be careful: in this pattern, the object is NOT followed by an -ing form:

• The teacher allowed us leaving early - WRONG

• The teacher allowed us to leaving early - WRONG

• The teacher allowed us to leave early - RIGHt

Passive forms are also possible.

• Smoking is not allowed in this building

• You are not allowed to smoke in this building

3. To check your understanding, do the following quiz:

4. Now do exercises 2 and 3 from page 134 form your books.

Short but intense...tomorrow more!