Category: Grammar

Irregular Verbs – Controlled Past Simple Speaking Activity
Irregular Verbs – Controlled Past Simple Speaking Activity

Speaking activities are the best thing in teaching and learning a foreign language. However, students sometimes run out of ideas about what they should say or the language they use is far from the one we try to teach them. To solve the problem, I designed the CARD SPEAKING activity.

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A Board Game to Practise the Verb CAN
A Board Game to Practise the Verb CAN

Play with your students this board game to practise the verb CAN. Students play the game and practice the grammar.

Everything I have to teach the verb HAVE GOT
Everything I have to teach the verb HAVE GOT

In this post, I would like to share the materials I have created recently to teach the verb HAVE GOT.

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Present simple and present continuous
Present simple and present continuous

The aim of this post is to give you a set of materials to help you teach the difference between the present simple and continuous tenses. You can find several other resources on this topic here and here. Moreover, there is a great video by BBC called Grammar Gameshow.

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Past tense of regular verbs
Past tense of regular verbs

It has been known that people remember grammar rules best if they come up with their own explanation. Therefore, the teachers should try to design their teaching activities in such a way that they will help students create their own rules.

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Have got – board game
Have got – board game

Recently my colleague noticed that our textbook contains too few exercises to practise the verb HAVE GOT. To bridge this gap I decided to create a board game. A board game will allow my students practise the grammar in a fun way and this activity can be used repeatedly.

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Elementary Grammar Up – free book download
Elementary Grammar Up – free book download

Grammar Up is a new, holistic approach to teaching and learning English grammar.

When you take English in school, you learn one piece of grammar at a time. After a while, you become confused by all the rules, and you forget most of them.
Native speakers don’t know the rules for the grammar. They use them.

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With Grammar Up, you work in the same way. The grammar points are not explained—you have to use them. And when you use the grammar, you learn it.

How to use this book?


There are 9 short texts for elementary learners of English. First, you have to read the text and answer the comprehension questions. You can either write your answers on a piece of paper or you can remember them. Check your answers below the questions.

This comprehension exercise is followed by the first Grammar Up exercise. You will see the same text you have read, but this time half of every second word is deleted. The text looks like this:

You wi_____ see t_____ same te_____ you ha_____ read, b_____ this ti_____ half o_____ every sec_____ word i_____ deleted.

Try to read the text and complete each word. It is ideal to read the text aloud this time. If you are not sure how to complete a word, turn back to the original text and find the correct answer. It might be a good idea to write the full text and check your answers then.

This exercise is followed by the second Grammar Up text. This time you see a text in which all the verbs are in the infinitive form, all the prepositions are replaced by a dash (-), and all the articles are replaced by an asterisk (*). The text then looks like this:

You SEE * same text you READ, but this time half – every second word DELETE.

Your task is to read the text again and add all the missing words and forms. It might not be a bad idea to write out the text as well.

I hope you like this book and that your facility with grammar goes up!!!

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You can see the Word document here:


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This is the second Grammar UP book. You can find the first one at https://engames.eu/grammar-up-book-for-free/ .

You can find more great materials for teaching English at British Council site.

Gerund or infinitive?
Gerund or infinitive?

Engames and Fluency MC have joined forces again to bring you a post that will help you decide whether you should use a gerund or an infinitive after a verb. This post is not going to provide a comprehensive overview of the grammar. Our aim is to give your students a simple guide to help them decide correctly between the two parts of speech most of the time.
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The post contains a song, an infographic, an interactive online quiz and a game.

Gerund or Infinitive – pretest


Do you think you know the grammar already and don´t need to read the article? Try the following test and see how well you do.

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Gerund or Infinitive – song


Watch the following song and complete the lyrics. The aim of this song is to introduce the topic.

Here are the lyrics in a pdf file:
Lyrics gerund
Here are the lyrics as supplied and created by Fluency MC:
Gerund-or-Infinitive

Gerund-or-Infinitive-2

Gerund and Infinitive – infographic


The following infographic does not contain a comprehensive list of all the verbs. Only the verbs that are used in the song appear here.

Gerund or infinitive infographic
Gerund or infinitive infographic

These rules are so called rules of thumb. They work in most cases but not all. However, to use the rules correctly, students first have to understand them.
The rule goes like this: “If the first verb happens before the second verb, use TO. If the second verb happens at the same time or before the first verb use the ending -ING with the second verb. “ Thus in the sentence “I hope to go to the party,” I first hope and then go to the party. That is why you use TO. On the other hand, in the sentence “I enjoyed going to the party,” I enjoyed the party at the same time as I was there.

Assess your students understanding of the rules using the following test. Choose 10 verbs at random and ask your students to write them down and write if they think they should be followed by TO or -ING. Then go through their responses and elicit the correct answers.

Once you feel that the students know the grammar, it is time to practise it.

Gerund or infinitive – online quiz


The best way to remember the verb patterns is by using them. The following quiz is in HTML5 and will work on all mobile devices.

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To display the quiz on full screen click the button below.
Gerund or infinitive? – quiz

The second game is in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. It is called On Target, and your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad cows and ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles on the wall to get a bonus. Enjoy.
Gerund or infinitive – On target game

Gerund or infinitive – links


At engames.eu I have already published two posts on the use of gerunds and infinitives in English. The first post is called Verb Patterns – preintermediate, and the second is called Verb Patterns again – final solution. You can practise the grammar there as well.

Gerund or infinitive

Past simple and past continuous
Past simple and past continuous

Yesterday a friend sent me a song he’d written that uses only the past simple and past continuous tenses. He asked me how I liked it, and I had to admit it was great. A few hours later I encountered a short explanation of the same grammar by Australiaplus.com, and I realised that I wanted to share both with my friends on the Internet. This post is the result.
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In this post there is the song by Chris Barickman, a video explanation, an explanation by Australiaplus.com, an infographic and an interactive quiz.

Past simple and continuous – song


Let’s start with the song. Please listen and complete the lyrics:

The lyrics worksheet:
Past continuous tense lyrics

Past simple and continuous – explanation


Now listen to the following explanation.

And here is another short explanation of the same grammar by Australiaplus.com:

https://soundcloud.com/australiaplus/past-continuous

Past simple and continuous – infographic


Here is a set of infographics created by www.engames.eu.

Past continuous tense affirmative

Past continuous tense questions

See how the questions are formed in the past continuous tense

Past continuous tense usage

See when you should use the past continuous tense


If you want to download the full infographic in superb quality, you can do that here:
Past continuous tense – full infographic

Past simple and continuous – quiz

The following quiz is in HTML 5 so it will play on all mobile devices and desktop computers. Your task is to choose the correct tense – either the past simple or the past continuous. Enjoy the games if you pass the tests.

Past simple or past continuous? – quiz

Past simple and past continuous

Past tense of modal verbs
Past tense of modal verbs

The past tenses of the modal verbs MUST, CAN and CAN’T often cause problems, even for advanced students of English. I have heard some of my best students, who had already passed the CAE exam, use words like MUSTED, and I was not happy about it. That is why I try to teach this grammar thoroughly.
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In this post I would like to share an infographic and additional exercises I use to teach this grammar point. I hope you find this post useful. Please don’t hesitate to share any of your materials on this topic. You can send them to my email: rotreklzdenek @gmail.com. Thank you.

Modals in the past tense – infographic


Display the following infographic to your students and explain that MUST does not have a past tense. Instead, they should use the past tense of HAVE TO. Go through all the verbs and elicit their meaning. Then ask your students to work in pairs. One of them will turn with their back to the screen, and the other will say the verb in the present tense. The student whose back is turned then has to say the verb in the past tense. It is a kind of drill, but if you ask your students to do this for one minute each, it is very effective.

Modals in the past tense

Modal verbs in the past tense – quiz


The following quiz is in HTML 5 so it will work on all mobile devices and desktop computers. Students can do the quiz either at home or at school in a computer lab. If they complete each of the texts with the correct modal verb in the past tense they will be rewarded with a game.

Modal verbs in the past tense quiz

Modal verbs in the past tense – links

There are some very interesting exercises at the British Council site.
There are more exercises on this topic at the BBC learning English site.

Past tense of irregular verbs – VA method
Past tense of irregular verbs – VA method

Recently I have published 4 posts on teaching irregular verbs. The posts were based on a rap song by Fluency MC. This post is different.
This time I am introducing a new method of teaching the past tense of irregular verbs. The method is called the Visual-Audio Method, and I think it is completely new. I have managed to try it out with only with one class so far, but I can say that it worked.
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Irregular verbs – video


Here is the video for the Visual-Audio Method. It consists of three parts. In the first part the students listen to, read and repeat the sentences. In the second part they listen to the sentences and repeat them, but the words don’t appear on screen. In the third part they see the picture of the action and they have to supply the sentence before they hear it.

You should play the video at least once in each lesson for one or two weeks to ensure that the students remember the phrases.

Irregular verbs – infographic


The following infographic should help the students revise the words. You can ask your students to translate the phrases.

Irregular verbs VA method infographic

Irregular verbs – quizzes


Your students can test their knowledge of the past tense of the verbs in the following HTML5 quiz. The quiz will play on all mobile devices and desktop computers.
Irregular verbs Quiz


The following two games are in Flash and will play only on desktop computers. They are really fun. I often play them with my classes at school.

Irregular verbs Invaders game


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Irregular verbs Half a minute

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4
Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4

This is the last post in which we try to teach the irregular verbs mentioned in the rap song by Fluency MC. This time there are 15 irregular verbs and to help you teach or learn them there is an infographic, a quiz and a game.

Irregular verbs – song


First, listen to the following song and complete the lyrics. Start at 2:45.

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The lyrics worksheet:
Irregular verbs song lyrics 4

Irregular verbs – infographic


Display or hand out the following infographic and go through the irregular verbs with your students. Explain the meaning of the more difficult verbs if necessary or ask your students to use dictionaries.

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 4

To print ot the infographic, use the following pdf file:
Irregular verbs with fluency 04

Irregular verbs – online quiz


The following online quiz consists of two parts. In the first part the students should match the irregular verbs and their meanings, and then complete the sentences with an appropriate irregular verb in the past tense.
In the second part the students should drag the irregular verbs to the appropriate spaces in the sentences. After they pass each part of the quiz they will be rewarded with a game.
The quiz is created in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices and computers.

Irregular verbs Quiz

The second game is called Goose Science Quiz, and your task is to click the dice in the upper right hand corner and then answer the questions. If you manage to get to the finish first, you will win the game. The game can be played by multiple people at the same time.
Once again, the game is in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices and computers.

Goose Quiz on irregular verbs

Irregular verbs – all irregular verbs with Fluency MC posts


As I wrote above, this is the fourth post we have prepared together with Fluency MC. You can find the previous posts here:
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Six different tenses in English
Six different tenses in English

Students often learn just one piece of grammar in a lesson. Most of them master that day’s subject and move on to the next. But, when the time for revision comes, they often don’t remember what they’ve learnt.
For example, two weeks ago my class encountered an exercise in which several tenses were revised. First, they demanded that I re-explain the grammar and then they seemed really confused about what form they should use.
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That was why I decided to stop there and prepare several exercises and a clear mind map. You can find them here.

Six tenses – infographic


There are two different mind maps in this post. The first one shows when different tenses should be used. If you decide to use this mind map, you will have to explain the grammar yourselves.

Six tenses for you

The second infographic is much more detailed. You will have to explain this one to your students as well. You have to emphasize that they first have to ask when the action happens. Does it happen NOW, IN THE FUTURE, IN THE PAST or ALL THE TIME? Once they answer that question, they should follow the appropriate branch. If the action happens in the past, they have to decide if the action was a long one or a short one and then use the appropriate tense.
If the action happens in the future, they have to decide how certain the action is and then use the appropriate form. Promises and predictions are considered uncertain.
Six tenses in English

Six tenses – online quiz


Now that your students understand the grammar, they have to use it as soon as possible. Allow them to use the infographic here.
The following online quiz is in HTML5, so your students can try it out on their mobile phones while you do it on the interactive whiteboard. The quiz has two parts. You will get to play a game after each part if you pass.

Six tenses quiz

If you cannot do the exercise online, you can try the following paper version of the quiz.

six tenses worksheet

More exercises


You can find more exercises to practise different tenses at Five Tenses and Five Tenses additional exercises.

Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #3
Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #3

As I wrote before, irregular verbs are the most important thing for all students of English to learn. However, it is not easy to master them. That is why Fluency and I started to collaborate on a series of posts that deal with teaching just the irregular verbs.
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In this post we are going to introduce another set of 15 verbs. To learn them there is a song, an infographic, a quiz and a game. If you go through all the activities you will meet each word at least 6 times. We hope you will like our work and share the post.

Irregular verbs – song


Listen to the following song and try to complete the lyrics. To complete the lyrics start the song at 2:05.

You can find the lyrics here:
Lyrics part 3

Irregular verbs – infographic

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC

Here is the infographic with all the irregular verbs, you should learn in this post. For each word there is a definition (in either word or picture form) and two examples of usage.

Display the infographic and go through the verbs with your students. Explain the meaning of the difficult words.

Irregular verbs – game and quiz

Here is a two-part online quiz. Your task is to choose the correct answers and pass the quiz. You you will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz if you pass.
This game is in HTML5, so it will play on all mobile devices as well as desktop computers.

Irregular verbs Quiz

Irregular verbs – other sites

You can find more irregular verbs practise at https://grammarlane.com/irrverbs/irrverbsen.html . Choose the irregular verbs you want to practise and choose the mode (speaking or writing). Then write or say the past tense and the past participle of the verbs you see.

Irregular verbs by British Council.

Irregular verbs by BBC.

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A song by Fluency MC on irregular verbs:

Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #2
Teach irregular verbs with Fluency MC #2

In my opinion, irregular verbs are the most important thing one has to learn in English. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that students know them. However, teaching them is not easy. There are no rules, and the number of new words that students manage to commit to memory is quite low. Thus the teaching materials have to be interesting enough that students would return to them.

And one of the best materials for teaching irregular verbs is this song, which was created by Jason R Levine from Fluency MC:
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In this post we are going to deal with the verbs mentioned in the second verse of the song. Below you will find an infographic, an online quiz and a game to help your students learn the irregular verbs.

Irregular verbs – infographic


Display the following infographic and go through the words with them. Use the pictures to explain the meaning or ask your students to use their dictionaries.

Irregular verbs mind map 2


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Irregular verbs – an online quiz and a game


Start with the online quiz. The quiz is in HTML5 so it will play on mobile devices too. In the first part, you should drag the words to the correct spaces. If you pass, you will be rewarded with a game called Angry Farmer. In the second part, you have to look at the picture and complete the sentence. Use the past tense of a verb that best fits the sentence.

Irregular verbs quiz

Irregular verbs – links

You can practise the irregular verbs in sentences in the following video.


Irregular verbs by British Council.

Irregular verbs by BBC.

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A song by Fluency MC on irregular verbs:

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC
Irregular verbs with Fluency MC

I have already published 10 posts on teaching irregular verbs. You can see the list of the posts down here:

  1. Irregular verbs again
  2. Irregular verbs again 2
  3. Irregular verbs – third time lucky?
  4. Irregular verbs in context 1
  5. Irregular verbs straightforward

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  1. Irregular verbs straightforward #2
  2. Irregular verbs straightforward #3
  3. Teach 9 irregular verbs in one lesson
  4. Irregular verbs in context – Scream
  5. Irregular verbs in context – Teacher story

But I still cannot say that my students know the verbs. That was why I joined forces with Fluency MC, and this time we would like to teach the irregular verbs together.
To achieve this, we have prepared a song, an infographic, a game and an online quiz. We believe that if you go through all the activities, you will know the 20 irregular verbs we would like to teach in this post.

Irregular verbs – song

Listen to the song and complete the lyrics.

Irregular verbs lyrics first part

Irregular verbs – infographic


Show the following infographic to your students and ask them to go through the example sentences. If you teach a monolingual class, ask them to translate the more difficult sentences. Note that the print version of the worksheet looks different than the infographic here:

irregular verbs fluency MC

You can download the print version of the infographic here:

Irregular verbs with Fluency MC 1

Irregular verbs – online quiz

Now it is time to test your students knowledge. Ask them to complete the following online test. If they pass they will be rewarded with a game.

Online quiz on irregular verbs

Fluency MC – more videos


You can watch more videos by Fluency MC here:

How to decide between an adverb and adjective
How to decide between an adverb and adjective

Students often hesitate over whether they should use an adverb or an adjective in a sentence. And to be honest, I did not make it much easier for them with my explanations. So I decided to buckle down to work and create a simple system which will work for my students.
Here is the final result. I have created an infographic which helps the students decide what form they should use. Then there are two games to help them to practice what they have learned and an interactive quiz where they can test their knowledge.

Adverbs or adjectives – infographic


First, make sure, that your students know how to form adverbs. If they don´t, we have a great post on adverbs here.

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Once you are sure your students can form adverbs correctly, show them the following infographic. Explain that they have to consider two factors when deciding whether they should use an adjective or an adverb. First, are any of the verbs mentioned in point 1 in the sentence? If so, they should use an adjective.
If not, they should consider point 2. Is the word in front of a noun and does it describe it? If so, they should use an adjective again.
In all other cases the students should use an adverb. I know it is just a rule of thumb, but it works most of the time.
You should not forget to mention that there is a difference between GOOD and WELL after the verbs in case 1. GOOD means not bad and WELL means fine or healthy.

adjective or adverb

Adverbs or adjectives – games


Now there are two games to practise the grammar in an enjoyable way. The first game is called On Target. Your task is to choose the correct option and then shoot all the bad ducks. You can shoot one of the bottles near the walls and thus earn a bonus.

On Target game

The second game is called Penalty Shootout and students love it. Your task is again to choose the correct option and then score a goal.

Penalty Shootout Game

Adverbs or adjectives – online quiz

Now you can practise the grammar in the following quiz. Students should fill in the correct answers and if they pass the quiz they will be rewarded with a game. Unlike the games above, this one is in HTML5 so it will play on all mobile devices.

Online quiz

Placement test for beginners
Placement test for beginners

Most placement tests are for adults. There are few placement tests for young students. Thus, when a teacher tries to test his or her students’ proficiency in English using a standard placement test, the students quickly become discouraged because they don’t understand anything. Then the final results tell you nothing about the students´ knowledge.
This placement test is different. It contains only 40 multiple choice questions, and it is for students who are at level A1 of the CERF. If the students get more than 28 answers correct, their English is at level A1 CEFR. If they get over 36 answers correct they are well into A2 CEFR level.
The grammar tested here contains only the verbs BE, HAVE GOT and CAN, present simple and continuous tenses. About half of the items test students´ knowledge of vocabulary and phrases.

Placement test

There are two versions of the test. The first one is an interactive quiz, which you can try here:

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To play the quiz on the full screen click the button below:

Placement test – full screen

Or you can try the paper version of the test here.

Placement test for level A1

I hope the test will help you know your students better and choose the right level for each of them.

Other Placement tests


This placement test is for students 9-13 years old. If you are looking for a placement test for younger students, you can try the one that is here.
If you are looking for a placement test for adults, try this one.
You can try a placement test by Saint George Institute.

Was Were in questions
Was Were in questions

Questions with the verbs WAS and WERE are among the most common in English. Therefore it is vital for students to learn these questions well. They have to be able to form them, understand them and answer them.

To help you teach these types of questions, I have included the following activities in this post: an infographic explaining the grammar, a worksheet, a motivational song, a memory quiz and an online quiz. I hope you will find these useful and that your students will master questions with the verbs WAS and WERE.

Basic grammar rules – infographic


Display the following infographic to your students and explain that questions with WAS and WERE usually start with these words. Elicit that you can add a WH word in front of them.
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Was were in questions

Basic grammar rules – worksheet

I try to teach the grammar using a topic that the students are interested in. This time I have chosen the topic Selfies.

Was were questions worksheet

Start the lesson with the following song and ask the students to complete the lyrics in the first exercise in the worksheet.

Then play the video for the students and ask them to check their answers.

In the second activity, they should work in pairs and discuss the questions about selfies. If you happen to have a group whose English is not very good, have the students ask you the questions. That way you can demonstrate the way they should answer, and at the same time you can clear up the meaning of the questions.

Now ask the students to put the worksheets away and play the following video:

When the video finishes, ask your students to answer the questions as well as they can. Ask them to answer in full. Once they finish this task, tell them to check their answers and count 1 point for each correct YES or NO and 2 points if they gave a full answer (like, Yes, she was.)

Find out the winner and congratulate them.

Play the video again and ask the students to write their own questions for the pictures.

Ask them to work in pairs and to ask and answer their own questions.
In the last exercise, students work in pairs and give true answers to the questions.

Basic grammar rules – online quiz

The following online quiz contains a lot of different tasks which the students can do either as homework or at school. The quiz is in HTML5 and it will play on all digital devices.

Was and Were questions – full screen

Basic grammar rules – links


There are some great activities for learning and practising WAS and WERE at the British Council site.

Prepositions of place – elementary
Prepositions of place – elementary

I like teaching prepositions of place. I can use the Cuisenaire rods, and my students can be creative in many ways and use English a lot.
Here I would like to share the activities I use to teach prepositions of place. In this post you can find the following activities: a mind map, an infographic, a worksheet and online exercises.

Prepositions of place – infographic


First, I introduce the prepositions of place using the following infographic. If you have an interactive whiteboard in your English class, you can display it there, or you can print it and hand it out to everyone in the class.
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Prepositions of place infographics

Then display the following mind map and elicit the prepositions.

Prepositions of place speaking

Prepositions of place – worksheet


Hand out the following worksheet to your students. There are four pages and it is best to print out two pages on one sheet.

Prepositions of place worksheet

First you need to practise the names of pieces of furniture with your English class. You can find a furniture vocabulary post here.

Ask your students to solve the crossword and word search and then check their answers.
The second page concentrates on the prepositions. Ask your English class to figure out the names of the cats using the clues on the right.

In the task that follows, students should complete the sentences using the correct prepositions.
On the third page there is another infographic to introduce the meanings of the prepositions of place.

If you have a monolingual class and you speak their mother tongue, you could ask them to translate the sentences.

In the last task on page four, students have to place the pieces of furniture in the room. Then they have to describe their room to their partner and the listener has to draw the room.

Prepositions of place – Cuisenaire rods


My English classes love this activity. I bring the Cuisenaire rods and I give each pair of students a set. First, I tell them that they have 3 minutes to play with the rods.

After the 3 minutes I ask them to stop playing and put all the rods in the box. Then I dictate sentences like: Put the red rod on the table. Put the green rod under the red rod. Put the white rod next to the red rod.

I dictate 5 sentences and then we check the resulting shape.

In the next phase students work in pairs. One of them dictates and the other puts the rods on the table. After a while they swap their roles.

Prepositions of place – online quiz

You can either ask your English class to use the following online quiz at home or you can do it at school if you have enough computers.

As the quiz is in HTML5 and should play on every mobile device, you could even ask your English class to do the quiz on their mobile phones.

In the quiz there are several slides with questions. If the students pass the quizzes, they can play a game.

Prepositions of place – full screen

Prepositions of place – links


There are some great activities for learning and practising prepositions of place at the British Council site.