Category: English games

Last week I was teaching past perfect in one of my classes and suddenly one of the students exclaimed: “Finally we are learning something new.” And by new she meant useful as well.
I am not sure how useful this tense might be for people who want to speak English but it is certainly very handy for students who want to read in English a lot as past perfect tense comes up quite frequently in reading.
Once again, if you want to use and form past perfect tense correctly you need to know past participles.. If you are not sure about them, follow the link and learn them.

This mind map tries to explain the form and the usage of the past perfect tense.
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If you think you understand past perfect tense, it is high time to practise the tense in the following exercises and games.

There is just one game to practise past perfect tense. It is called Penalty and to be able to play this game you need to read the following story first:

And now try the game called penalty. Read each sentence and on the basis of the story above decide which tense should be used. If you choose the correct tense you will be given a chance to kick a penalty.

The GAMEThe game is in Flash

Have you been wondering what the big shock for Alan was? The story continues here. Once again you can learn 16 new words and practise them in a game. Then you can check your comprehension with a mind map which once again serves as a worksheet too.
The next chapter of the story Two Dates will be the last one, so do not miss it. It will be published on Wednesday 2nd April 2014.
If you have missed the previous chapters of this story for teenagers, you can find Chapter 1 here and Chapter 2 here.

Here is a mind map which should serve as a worksheet too. First answer the questions about what happened in the previous chapters and then find the new words. Use a dictionary to complete the section.
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I hope you like the story and that you will come back for the last chapter of Two Dates.

Once you know all the words it is time to go to the next section.

Watch the video and complete another part of the mind map (PLOT). You can make this part more difficult for you and switch off the screen and just listen to the story. It is up to you 🙂

This part of our post nearly always contains several games to practise what you have learnt in the post. This time there is just one game. Your task is to practise all the new vocabulary from the story.

Click Here to play the game – Two Dates – Half a minute

 

The first chapter of the story Two Dates proved to be quite popular. The story will have 4 chapters in all. Here is the second one.

Here is a mind map for the second chapter of the story Two Dates. In my opinion the ideal way to proceed with this post is to learn the vocabulary first. Print out the mind map and then complete the Vocabulary branch.
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Once you have studied the vocabulary from the mind map, it is useful to practise the words in the following games. The first one is called simply Memory Game and your task is to remember the words that appear in the center of the screen and then click on them. This game is in HTML 5 so it will play on your mobile phone too. I have managed to get to level 14. Will you be better?

Click Here to play the game – Two Dates – Memory game

The second game is called Half a minute and your task is to put the words into the correct order in half a minute. By playing these games you should learn the vocabulary from the story Two Dates. Enjoy:

Click Here to play the game – Two Dates – Half a minute Once you know the vocabulary watch the video here and try to undestand it. Once you finish the video answer the questions in the mind map.

If you prefer reading the story as a text, you can read it here:

“Y…yes of course!” He smiled shyly at Martha.

“Great!” Martha flashed another one of her perfect smiles and turned around, returning back to her seat beside Susan. Susan looked back at Alan and smiled, waving at him.

He waved back. He could not believe his luck!

Bruce saw the whole exchange and left Alan alone.

Alan waited nervously for Martha after school, by the gates. He kept a look out for her, and scanned the crowd for a pretty girl in a yellow floral dress. To his surprise, Martha met him in a completely different outfit. She must have changed before meeting him. Yet again, she showed off her perfect figure in skin-tight jeans and a white t-shirt.

“Ready?” Martha held out her hand, waiting for Alan to take it.

He took it without a moment’s hesitation.

They spent the afternoon at the ice cream shop in town. Martha wanted Alan to buy her ice cream, which he did. He did not have much money on him that day, only enough for a single ice cream cone, so he let Martha have it. He watched her polishing off the chocolate-flavored ice cream.

“Alan, how can you not have money with you?” Martha asked surprised and shocked. She rolled her eyes as she took another lick off her ice cream.

Alan blushed. He was not expecting to go out at all, so of course he did not have much money on him.

“That’s okay, I’m not hungry,” he told Martha, watching her eat.

“Okay,” said Martha.

After their ice cream date, Alan walked her home. She did not bother saying goodbye as she walked into the driveway of her house, but Alan waved anyway. He was in love.

He could not stop thinking about her even at home. Alan decided to write Martha a poem. Running eagerly to his computer, he started the word processor and typed.

I never knew about happiness;
I didn’t think dreams
came true;
I couldn’t believe in love,
Until I finally met you.

Alan decided to send it to Martha’s email.

He fell asleep with a bright smile on his face, feeling certain that his fortune had changed at last…

Alan woke up the next morning, happy and cheery that that morning would be the first day to a whole new different Alan. He wondered if Martha had seen his email yet.

When he turned on his computer, he had the biggest shock of his life.

This morning I was preparing a presentation for one of my classes on separable and not separable phrasal verbs and suddenly an interesting pattern appeared. It seems that the fact that the particle is separable can be guessed according to the particle that is used. I am not sure whether it works all the time, but it certainly worked for all the phrasal verbs I had to cover with my lower intermediate class.
The rule is quite simple: If the phrasal verb is transitive, it is not separable if there are two particles or the particles AFTER and WITH are used. If there are other particles, the phrasal verbs are separable.
It might seem really complicated but if you have a look at the mind map bellow, it is quite easy.

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I am glad if you feel that you can understand the grammar now. However, it is more important to be able to use the grammar correctly than to understand it. That is why I have prepared two games for you to check your understanding.
The first game is called Darts. Your task is to choose a correct (or incorrect) option and click on it at the moment you think that you will get most points.

Click Here to play the game – Phrasal verbs – Darts

The second game is called On target. Once again, your task is to choose the correct or incorrect option and then shoot as many bad ducks as you can.

Click Here to play the game – Phrasal verbs – on Target If you are more interested in the meaning and usage of phrasal verbs you should certainly try our other post on phrasal verbs. It is a short story about Fred and Betty and you will certainly learn some of the verbs there too.
Please, let us know what you think about this new rule.

I don’t know whether anyone will be interested in this mini series called Two Dates. However, as all the research shows that extensive reading helps students improve their English I put it here. There is a short story cut into four parts and a mind map which can serve as a comprehension worksheet.
Moreover, you can learn the vocabulary from the worksheet and there are two games to practise the new vocabulary.

Watch the video and try to understand the story. If you want to make this exercise slightly more challenging, switch off the picture and just listen.
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Try to complete the mind map with the information from the story. Use your dictionary and translate the vocabulary. Once you finish the worksheet (mind map) watch the video again and check your answers.

In the first game you should write the jumbled word in the correct way. You have always 30 seconds to manage this.

Click Here to play the game – Two Dates – Chapter 1 – Hoop Shoot

In the second game you should complete each sentence with the correct word.

Click Here to play the game – Two Dates – Chapter 1 – Hoop Shoot Here is the whole story if you do not want to listen to it and just read it.

Alan was the wallflower in his class. He was always a little shy and he had no real friends when he was younger, but he always thought that this would change by the time he went to secondary school.

It had not happened.

Alan did not know why he had such a hard time talking to people, especially girls. He had no problem talking to his mother or sisters at home, but when a girl asked him a simple question in school, he would get nervous, and his whole face would become as red as a tomato as he tried to get the words out.

There were two beautiful girls in his class, Susan and Martha. Not only were they beautiful, they were smart and popular too. Susan excelled in English, whereas Martha was better at numbers and was usually the one with her hands up in the air for every question asked during Maths class.

Alan was not popular, neither was he particularly handsome. He was neither the tallest boy in class nor the most athletic one. He did not excel in any subject, and his grades were average at best. This did not help his confidence, and it got weaker year by year.

But that year, Alan wanted to make a difference. He wanted to be noticed, and he wanted to make friends for once. Their school was organizing a dance, and boys usually asked girls out to be their dates.

In the past, Alan usually chose to stay home, watch some television with his parents or play video games. He did not have the courage to ask any girl out, and he certainly did not want to go to the dances alone. He always felt left out when he returned to school the day after, listening to all the fun and good times that his classmates had at the dance. He no longer wanted to be that guy that stayed at home, miserable and alone, without a date.

Alan wanted to be different that year.

He tried by making small talk with the boys. He offered to help Bruce with his homework. Bruce, was a bully, but was also the best looking boy in class. He sneered at him and stood above him. Alan tried to look smaller in his seat. “You? Help me with my homework? Do you think I am stupid and I need some help?”

“No, I just wanted to help,” Alan’s voice sounded strange.

The whole class laughed at him. Alan sank deeper into his seat and pretended not to care. His ears were burning with shame.

He looked down on his homework and tried to ignore the students around him.

From the edge of his vision, Alan saw a pair of pretty shoes. He looked up in surprise at Martha’s face.

Beautiful, popular Martha.

“Hi Alan,” she smiled.

“H…Hi,” he said shyly.

She looked very pretty indeed, showing off her beautiful figure in a lovely yellow floral dress. Her long blond hair was in perfect curls around her sweet face.

“Maybe you could help me. Do you want to go out after school?” Martha asked Alan.

Alan nearly choked. He could not believe what he was hearing. Martha? Beautiful popular Martha was asking him out on a date! What should he say?

To learn Passive voice it is necessary to know the past participles. If you do not know the past participles go to our post on Past participle and learn the irregular verbs first. Once you do not have any problems with past participles, it is time to learn the Passive voice in English.
Passive voice is used if the subject (the thing before the verb) does not do the action described by the verb. Then you have to insert the verb “TO BE” in the correct form in front of the verb in past participle.

First there is a mind map describing the form of the passive.
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The second graphic clearly shows the usage of passive voice: Your task is to write two sentences under each picture using present simple tense and past simple. The sentences in the first column should be in active voice and the sentences in the second column should be in passive voice.

Here you have a chance to learn the passive through games. Play each game at least twice and then I think that you will understand the basic rules of passives.
The first game is a simple online quiz. Try to fill in the verbs in the correct form.

Passive – online quiz

The second game is called Hoop shoot. Once again, choose the correct form and then stop the sliders in the center.
Click Here to play the game – Passive Hoop Shoot

In this post you should learn to read and write numbers in English. To help you with this I have created a simple graphical presentation and three games. I hope you will find them useful and that it will help you learn English better.

Have a look at the graphic and read the instructions how to read and write the numbers. Each explanation includes several examples which are listed bellow, next to the planet.
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[showmyads] In the following section you can find several games to practise numbers. The games are ordered from the easiest to the most difficult.
The first game is called Half a minute and your task is to write the number within half a minute. In fractions use a slash (/).

Half a minute – game

The second game is called Teacher invaders and your task is similar to the previous game. You should write the numbers correctly andsave the Earth against the Teacher invaders.

Teacher Invaders – game

The last game is the most difficult one. It is called On Target and you should choose the correct way that a number is written in words. When we played the game at school the students got only 40% of the answers right. Will you be better than them?

On target – game I hope that by now you know the ways to read and write numbers in English. If you want to learn more English vocabulary, you can try here Animals, Furniture or Plants. Each of the posts contains a video, a mind map and several games to practise the words. Enjoy

Some time ago I presented here an infographics on present perfect tense. This infographic contains a lot of interesting information but when I tried to teach the present perfect tense using it, I found out that I failed. That is why I have prepared this new one where I try to introduce the form and the basic usage of the present perfect tense.
To teach the grammar successfully though the students have to know the past participles. You can learn present past participles here. There is mind map and three games to learn 40 of them.

This mind map shows the form of present perfect tense and the basic usage.
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We have used a rap before to explain the grammar. You can see the explanation of the present simple and present continuous tenses here and the rap presentation of past participles here.
Play this rap after reading the graphics above and it should help you memorise the form and the usage of the grammar.

And now it is time to practise the grammar. Try the following video. Watch and use the words on the screen to make a sentence in the present perfect tense. 

You can play other games for example here in our post Present perfect basic.

I hope this post helped you understand the usage and form of the present perfect tense better. You can find more grammar posts on our blog. For example, there is a post on Second conditional or creation of questions starting with HOW. Enjoy.

Several weeks ago I published a post on Conditionals. In the post, I tried to cover all the conditionals in one mind map and I think that I succeeded.
However, the post was unnecessarily complicated for lower level students. Therefore I created a simpler one for lower intermediate students who need to know only the second conditional. Here you can see the result.

The mind map very simply depicts the form and usage of the second conditional.
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Last week I taught passive and present perfect tense. I thought that I was well prepared but in both cases we encountered one big problem. The students could not form the past participles correctly. So they fought with the past participles and completely ignored the grammar taught.

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So now I know that we have to deal with past participles before we return to the two grammatical points again. That is why I have prepared this post. Here the students can learn and practise the past participles of 40 irregular verbs. It is not a full list but, it is better than nothing. There is a rap to start the lesson, there is a mind map and several games to practise the verbs. I hope you will find these useful too.

Watch and follow the video. You can sing along if you dare.


Here I try to track some regularities in forming the past participles in English. These rules are based on the pronunciation.

Past participles are not as difficult as they seem.

 

In this section of the post you can practise the 40 past participles in different games. First of them is called Fling the Teacher and your task is to choose the correct past participle. If you get all 15 questions correct your teacher will be fired. Good luck.

Click Here to play the game

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The second game is called En Garde. Your task is to choose the correct past participle and then hit your opponent. Kill him sooner than he does the same to you.

Click Here to play the game

The third game has already been presented on our site. It is called Teacher invaders and your task it to kill all the invaders and write the past participles of the verbs displayed. Enjoy.

Click Here to play the game

The word “HOW” is one of the most productive words in English. It helps us create meaningful questions and sentences. The word “HOW” combines with many other words to create these questions.
In this post I try to introduce the basic phrases “How much”, “How many”, “How often”, “How well”, “How long”, “How far” and “How old”.

Here the students can practise the basic usage of the word HOW in questions. First, they should create their own questions and later they can cover the inner rings and say the correct phrases.
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In the first game your task is to complete the questions with the correct word. Moreover, you should shoot all the invaders and save the Earth 🙂

Teacher Invaders

In the second game you should choose the correct answer and shoot only the BAD ducks. You can try to shoot one of the bottles too and get a bonus.

Shooting game

I hope that by now you know all the basic usages of the word HOW.

I had been using these phrases long before I learnt that they were a grammar item. However, as I have to teach them to my students at school, I have created this short post. There is just a simple graphical presentation of the phrases and two games to practise them.

To practise phrase there is someone doing in a more realistic and communicative  way I recommend using some similar picture where students should find the differences. Nice pictures for spotting the difference can be found at Maryglasgowmagazines (you have to pay to be a member though).

This simple chart shows how the phrase There is/are … doing something should be formed.
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I think I have not used the Penalty template for some time, so here you can play the penalty shootout. Your task is to answer each question correctly and then score a goal. Good luck.

Penalty shootout game

The second game is called Teacher invaders. Your task is to shoot all the invaders and finish the sentences with the correct for of the verbs in the brackets. Be careful with your spelling.

Past simple or past continuous? – quiz

You can find some more grammar games for elementary students at our site. For example there are games and mind maps to learn the past simple tense of irregular verbs. Or you could try the games on forming Adverbs correctly.

Two days ago we encountered a simple exercise in our textbook. Students’ task was to fill in the missing prepositions. Even though my students are strong lower intermediate students who can understand a lot of English and speak quite fluently, they were not able to use the correct prepositions. Although the students met the adjectives and prepositions many time before, they could not use them. So I have created this post where I will teach the adjectives and prepositions.
This post contains only a few adjectives but I believe it is better if you always use a few adjectives with the correct preposition than if you know a lot of adjectives and use the prepositions wrongly.

Adjectives and prepostions – infographic

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Adjectives and prepostions – games

I have been using games in class for quite a long time, but I never fail to be surprised how easily students learn the correct answers to the questions just because they want to win the game.

The first game is called Teacher Invaders and your task is to shoot all the invaders and complete the sentences with the correct prepositions.

Teacher Invaders game

The second game is called On target and your task is to shoot as many bad ducks as you can. You can shoot a bottle too and get a bonus. Give it a try.
On Target game

More posts on prepositions

If you need more practise on prepositions there are two more posts on prepositions at our site. They explain the usage of the prepositions AT, IN, ON for places and time.
You can find the posts at:
https://engames.eu/prepositions-place/
https://engames.eu/prepositions-at-in-on-time/

In this post, I try to explain what countable and uncountable nouns are. When I speak with native speakers of English they often tell me that the concept of countability in English is absolutely natural. “You simply know which noun is countable and which is not.” However, this natural feeling is nearly impossible to teach.

Based on my experience I have created the following mind map where I try to set some rules to help the learners of English. The rules given here are in no way foolproof but I hope they will help a bit.

In this post you will find the mind map and three game to revise the concept of countability.

Countable or Uncountable – mind map

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Games to practise countability

Now it is time to test your knowledge in games. The first one is absolutely new. You play the Tetris games and after 4 pieces you have to write whether the noun is Countable (C), Uncountable (U) or Both (B). USE ONLY CAPITAL LETTERS!!!

Countable and uncountable nouns – Tetris game

The second game is incredibly popular in my classes. It is called On Target and you should shoot the bad ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the side to get some bonus. The game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers that have the Flash plugin activated.

Countable and Uncountable – On Target game

The third game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct answer and then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers with Flash add on activated.

Countability – Penalty game

You can find more activities and explanations on this topic at Countable and Uncountable Games.

You can learn the usage of the words HOW MUCH and How MANY here.

My friend keeps asking me whether there is a logical way to see if he should use DO or MAKE. I always told him that there is not and that he should learn the phrases by heart. However, when he asked me for the third time I sat down and created a logical division for him. It is not foolproof but it is better than nothing. So I hope you will find it useful too.

Make and do – mind map

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Make and do – games

As there is nothing more to explain, here are two games to practise the language.

Make and do – Hoop shoot

In this game it is your task to choose the correct verb and then stop the circles as close to the center as possible. Good luck.
The HOOP SHOOT GAMEThe game is in Flash

Make and do – Teacher invaders

In this game your task is to write the right word (MAKE or DO) to complete the phrases. And then … SHOOT THEM ALL.
The INVADERS GAMEThe game is in Flash

In my opinion Plants are one of the worst covered vocabulary topics in ELT. That is why, I have created the following post. There is a pictionary with all the words, a mind map, a video and four games to practise the vocabulary. I hope you will find these words useful.

Plants – vocabulary video

Here is a video with the words and their pronunciation.
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Plants – pictionary

Here are all the words in a pictionary. You can print this material out (as long as you do not try to profit financially from this.)

Plants – mind map

This mind map tries to divide the vocabulary into three categories: Deciduous trees (those that have leaves), coniferous trees and flowers. Some students find these divisions useful.

Watch and practise

Watch the pictures and say the words in English.

Plants – games

Here are four games to practise the vocabulary. Give them a try:

Flashcards

Click Here to play the game

Pick a letter

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Click Here to play the game

Matching

Click Here to play the game

Crosswords

Click Here to play the game

This is quite a simple grammar point – adjectives with the endings ed or ing. The more annoying it is when students use the endings incorrectly. In this post you can find a mind map, two games and a BBC presentation on this topic. I hope it will work fine for you and that you will never ever confuse these two endings again.

Adjective endings – mind map

I call it a mind map but in fact it is a graphical explanation of the grammar point which has nothing to do with a mind map.
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Adjective endings – games

In both of the following games your task is to choose the correct adjective and then shoot 🙂

Adjective endings – On Target game

On Target Flash game.

Adjective endings – Penalty game

Penalty game Flash game.

Adjective endings – BBC grammar challenge

I have tried to turn the great BBC programme into a video. You can watch the result below. It explains the usage of the grammar.
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This will be quite a short post. But sometimes easy does it. So, I hope it will be the case.

I would love to explain the usage and form of Used to here. To achieve this I have created the following mind map:

Used to – mind map

In this mind map I try to explain the form and usage of the form USED TO:

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Used to – games

There are two simple games to practise the grammar explained above. The first one is called On target. Your task is to choose the correct form to complete the sentences and then you will get a chance to shoot the bad ducks. You have 5 shots but you might win a bonus if you shoot one of the bottles 🙂

Used to – On Target

On target game (Flash)

Used to – Teacher invaders

The second game is called Teacher invaders. Shoot all the invaders and save the Earth. Moreover, your task is to complete each sentence with the correct form of “USED TO”.

Teacher invaders game

Many elementary students feel they cannot see the difference between these two tenses. To help them I have created a rap which explains the grammar and gives some example sentences, two mind maps explaining everything simply and several games to practise this grammar point. I hope you will find it useful.

Present tenses – mind maps

The first mind map explains the basics about the present simple tense:

The second mind map has already been published here in the post on Present continuous tense. The mind map explains the usage and form of the present continuous tense.
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Present tenses – rap

Watch the rap and then try to answer the comprehension questions in the game On target. The rap explains the usage of the two tenses and gives some examples.

Now try the comprehension game. Answer all the questions and then shoot the bad ducks 🙂
Play the game here.

Present tenses – games

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Now it is time to check whether you understand the grammar point. Here is a game called En Garde. Your task is to choose the correct tense and then hit your opponent. Good luck.

You can play the game En Garde here.

Many people think that the topic animals is suitable only for children. Thus the learners learn the names of twenty animals when they are young and they think it is enough. However, intermediate students need to know more animals than the twenty they learnt as children. That is why I have created the following post. Here the intermediate students can practise what they learnt a long time ago and add some more new words.

Animals – pictionary

Here is a beautiful pictionary with all the animals which will be dealt with in this post.
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Animals – video

Watch the video and repeat the names of the animals. Each word is pronounced twice.

Animals – mind map

For many people it is much easier to remember new vocabulary if it is organised. Here is a mind map which tries to do this.

Animals – games

There are three games here. The first one is a classical wordsearch. Find the word, click on the first letter and then on the last one. Your task is to find all the animals there.

Animals Penalty game

The second game is called Penalty. Read the definitions and choose the correct animal.

Teacher invaders game

The last game is called Teacher invaders. Your task is to shoot all the invaders and write the names of the animals.

Half a minute game

And here is a bonus game. As some people do not like Teacher invaders here are the same words with the same definitions in a much quiter game:

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