Make, let, allow and get: who makes the rules? Make, let and allow exercises with and without to
About this lesson
This B2 drill lesson gives make, let, allow and get exercises on the verb after the person: made me clean, let us leave, allowed me to go, got Dad to say yes.
- Grammar
- Make and let + person + base form, allow and get + person + to, help either way, and the passive be made to and be allowed to.
- Topic
- A family group chat: Zadie, 16, bargains for a late concert past her curfew as her brother protests; then her message, his post and a chat with her.
- Activities
- True or false, sorting, choices, gap-fills, tables, matching, word order, meaning quizzes, drag-and-drop texts, an active-passive memory game and a chat.
What's inside
Chapter 1The rule
- PictureUnlock
- Study the scheme: make, let, allow, get, helpGrammar schemeTry it
- Is the sentence correct? Mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Sort the sentences: base form or to + verb next?Sort into columnsTry it
- Choose the right formChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: the person and the verbFill in the gapsUnlock
Chapter 2Make and let: no to!
- Fill in the gaps with make and let: at home and at workFill in the gapsTry it
- Choose the right form: make and letChoose the optionUnlock
- Match the situations and the sentencesMatchUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: make and letUnjumbleUnlock
- Fill in the table: make and let, positive, negative, questionFill in the tableUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right words: make and letQuizUnlock
- Read Kalani's post and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 3Allow, get and help: hello, to!
- Fill in the gaps with allow, get and help: rules and favorsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Choose the right form: allow, get and helpChoose the optionTry it
- Fill in the gaps: make it passiveFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: allow, get and helpUnjumbleUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right words: allow, get and helpQuizUnlock
- Read Farah's message and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 4Who decides? All five together
- Choose the right word: made or let?Choose the optionUnlock
- Choose the right meaningQuizUnlock
- Read the clues and fill in the gaps: no choice, permission or persuasion?Fill in the gapsUnlock
- Fill in the table: say it another wayFill in the tableTry it
- Fill in the gaps: be allowed to and be made toFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read Grandpa Bruno's story and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Chapter 5Real life: Can I go to the concert?
- Read the family group chatReal-life documentUnlock
- Read the chat again: true or false?True or falseUnlock
- Read Zadie's message to Nell and fill in the gapsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read Ronan's post and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
- Choose the right replies: Zadie texts youChatTry it
- Test yourself: choose the right answerQuizUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Choose the right form: at school and at workChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with make and let: family lifeFill in the gapsUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: allow, get and help at home and on the roadFill in the gapsUnlock
- Write the questionsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Put the words in the right order: rules and favorsUnjumbleUnlock
- Fill in the table: allow, get and help, positive, negative, questionFill in the tableUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: active and passiveMemory gameUnlock
- Sort the sentences: correct or wrong?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Sort the sentences: no choice, permission or persuasion?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Match the beginnings and the endingsMatchUnlock
- Find the mistake and choose the right words: everyday EnglishQuizUnlock
- Choose the correct sentenceQuizUnlock
- Choose the right verb: make, let or get?Choose the optionUnlock
- Read the ski school's email and fill in the gapsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Read Yusuf's review and drag the words into the gapsDrag and dropUnlock
Grammar: make, let, allow, get and help + person + verb
These verbs say who decides: make forces, let and allow give permission, get persuades and help helps. Each one takes a person and then a verb, but only some of them put to before it: Mom made me apologize, yet I got Dad to say yes.
Make, let, allow, get, help: who decides?
Say who forces someone, who gives permission, who persuades and who helps: verb + person + verb, with or without to.
Make and let + person + base form
After make or let and the person comes the bare verb: My mom made me clean my room. Our teacher let us leave early. The same holds in the negative: Please don't make me wait!
subjectmake / letperson (object)base form
My mom made me clean my room.
Our teacher let us leave early.
Please don't make me wait!
Allow and get + person + to
Allow and get need to before the verb: My parents allowed me to go to the concert. I got him to fix the sink, never I got him fix the sink.
allow / get + person + to + base form
subjectallow / getperson (object)to + base form
My parents allowed me to go to the concert.
I finally got my brother to help me.
Does the school allow you to use phones?
Passive make needs to · get needs to
In the passive, to comes back after make: I was made to apologize. (Not: I was made apologize.) get + person + verb needs to: I got him to fix the sink. (Not: I got him fix the sink.) make = no choice; get = you persuade someone: Mom made me go. I got Mom to let me go.
No choice, permission or persuasion
Make means the person has no choice; let and allow both give permission, let being more everyday; get means you persuaded someone. Help takes either form: He helped me (to) carry the boxes.
| Verb | Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| make | make + person + verb | force: the person has no choice | Mom made me apologize. |
| let | let + person + verb | give permission (everyday) | Dad let me drive his car. |
| allow | allow + person + to + verb | give permission (more formal) | The school allows us to leave at two. |
| get | get + person + to + verb | persuade: manage to make someone do it | I got Dad to say yes. |
| help | help + person + (to) + verb | help: both forms are right | He helped me (to) carry the boxes. |
Be made to and be allowed to
In the passive, to comes back after made: We were made to wait outside. Let has no passive with a verb, so They let us leave early becomes We were allowed to leave early, not We were let leave.
Active
- They made us wait outside.
- They let us leave early.
- They allowed us to leave early.
Passive
- We were made to wait outside. (to comes back!)
- We were allowed to leave early.
- let has no passive with a verb: use be allowed to. (Not: We were let leave.)
Negatives, questions and the past
Do, does and did make the negative and the question, and the pattern after the person stays: Mom doesn't let me stay up late. Does Mom allow you to stay up late? Let keeps one form in the past.
| Form | make / let (no to) | allow / get (+ to) |
|---|---|---|
| Positive (+) | Mom lets me stay up late. | Mom allows me to stay up late. |
| Negative (−) | Mom doesn't let me stay up late. | Mom doesn't allow me to stay up late. |
| Question (?) | Does Mom let you stay up late? | Does Mom allow you to stay up late? |
| Past | She made me go. · She let me go. | I got her to come. · She allowed me to go. |
| Passive | I was made to go. (let: no passive) | I was allowed to go. |
Common mistakes
The drills target four slips: The coach made us to run ten laps, Grandma let me to stay up late, They allowed us go home early and I was let to stay out late.
The coach made us to run ten laps.
The coach made us run ten laps.
make + person + base form, no to
Grandma let me to stay up late.
Grandma let me stay up late.
let + person + base form, no to
They allowed us go home early.
They allowed us to go home early.
allow + person + to + verb
I was let to stay out late.
I was allowed to stay out late.
let has no passive: use be allowed to
let, allow and help: good to know
let stays the same in the past: let – let – let (not: letted). let and allow mean the same; let is more everyday. Without a person, allow takes a noun or -ing: The pool doesn't allow dogs / allow diving. help works without a person too: Can you help (to) cook? Let me know and Let's go! are everyday phrases with let.
More lessons on this grammar: Gerunds and infinitives lessons and exercises
Try the make, let, allow and get exercises
Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.
What's in the lesson
- 39 auto-checked exercises
- 4 games
- 1 real-life document
- 1 grammar scheme
- 1 picture
The main objectives of this lesson are to:
- use make and let without to: The photographer made us smile for twenty minutes. Our landlord doesn't let tenants keep pets.
- add to after allow and get: The hotel doesn't allow guests to bring pets. I finally got my brother to clean the bathroom.
- choose the verb by meaning: made for no choice, let or allow for permission, got for persuasion: I got my dad to drive us to the mall
- turn the active into the passive: They made us wait → We were made to wait; Dad let me drive his car → I was allowed to drive Dad's car
- ask about rules: Does your boss let you work from home? Are you allowed to wear jeans at work?
- Grammar:
- make + object + verb · let + object + verb · allow + object + to · get + object + to · help + object + (to) verb · be made to · be allowed to
- Topic:
- grammar practice · family rules · teenagers · permission
Teaching tips
- Ask about rules growing up: pairs ask Did your parents let you…? and Did they make you…?, then report one answer with was allowed to or was made to.
- Read the family chat as a play: four students voice Zadie, Mom, Dad and Ronan, and after each turn the class sums it up, e.g. Mom is going to make her text every hour.
- Raise a to card during oral checks: students hold up a card marked to only when the verb needs it, after allow, get or a passive made.
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The whole course: English Grammar Practice · B2
English Grammar Practice · B2 has 24 drill lessons, one grammar point each: the future perfect and continuous, the third and mixed conditionals, wishes, past modals, the impersonal passive, have something done, participle clauses, reporting verbs and verb patterns. Each has the rule as a scheme, 43 to 47 exercises that check themselves, 15 of them for homework, and no new words.See the course
- 1Future continuous and future perfect: countdown to launch
- 2Future in the past: it was going to be perfect
- 3Past perfect continuous: what had been going on?
- 4Third conditional: if I hadn't missed that train…
- 5Mixed conditionals: where would you be now?
- 6Unless, in case and as long as: on one condition
- 7Wish and if only: is it too late?
- 8Would rather, had better and it's time: the couch crisis
- 9Past modals of deduction: what must have happened here?
- 10Should have and needn't have: what went wrong?
- 11Impersonal passive: it is said that…, she is said to…
- 12Have and get something done: who did the work?
- 13Non-defining relative clauses: the extra information
- 14Participle clauses: having planned everything
- 15Reporting verbs: what did they really say?
- 16Verbs + -ing or to: stop doing or stop to do?
- 17Make, let, allow and get: who makes the rules?
- 18Dependent prepositions: depend on, interested in, a reason for
- 19So do I and neither do I: agree, disagree and insist
- 20Articles with general ideas: life or the life?
- 21As, like and as if: interview like a pro
- 22Negative and echo questions: didn't you know?
- 23To, in order to and so that: what's it for?
- 24No use, no point and worth + -ing: what's worth your time?