Tag: games to learn English

Giving simple directions
Giving simple directions

Sometimes easy does it. Two days ago I was assigned to teach a short dialogue to a group of students with learning disabilities and problems. I created a set of three activities and I did not held any high expectations. However, it turned out that the students liked the activities and many of them actually learned to give simple directions. Therefore, I decided to share the activities here.

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In this post you will find an unusual, although very effective, drill which I call vanishing drill. Then there is a worksheet with a gapfill exercise and a speaking exercise in which the students consolidate their knowledge. This time there are no interactive exercises, but I hope you will like it anyway.

Giving simple directions – video

The following video contains the vanishing drill. Play the video and ask the students to read the text. After 11 seconds one or two words vanish and the students read the text aloud again. At the end of the three minutes you can be pretty sure that they will know the dialogue.


Giving simple directions – worksheet

After going through the drill it might be a good idea to revise the prepositions of place too. You can do this here, or you can use any other materials you like.

Seat the students into pairs and print the following worksheet and hand it to students so that each student in the pair has a different copy. Ask the students not to show the worksheet to their partner. Tell them to use the phrases from the drill to find out where the places listed below the map are. They should write the words into the worksheets.

Giving simple directions – worksheet

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Once they finish they should show their map to their partner and check their answers.

Then the students complete the exercise 2 so that the dialogues are in accordance with the map.

There is There are in questions
There is There are in questions

I have always believed that questions are one of the most important things in a language. That is why I devote quite a lot of my teaching time to teaching questions. I have already written several posts on teaching questions:

And this time I would like to share with you several activities and worksheets on how to teach questions with THERE IS and THERE ARE. I have used all these activities with my students and they worked.

There is There are questions – infographic

Start the lesson with explaining the grammar. Do not complicate the matters. Just say that we use this phrase when we want to know whether something is somewhere. Allow your student to use the following infographic during the follow-up activities to make sure that they use the correct form.

There is there questions infographic

You can download the pdf file with two infographics here:
There is there in questions

There is There are questions – Speaking activities

There are threes peaking activities I have created.

In the first one, print the following worksheet for every student. First, ask them to write the names of the facilities under the pictures at the top of the picture. Then think of one of the pictures and tell the students they have to ask There is/There are questions and find out which picture you are thinking of.
Then they work in pairs. One of them thinks of a picture and their partner tries to find out, using THERE IS/ THERE ARE questions. When he/she manages to guess the picture they swap their roles.

For the second activity, you need to print the worksheet twice. Cut out the towns 1-8. Hand out the pictures to your students so there are always at least two copies of the same town in the group (of course, there can be more copies if your groups are really large.) The students must not show their pictures to anyone and they have to find someone with the same picture. They have to ask THERE IS/THERE ARE questions.

There is/There are questions – Speaking worksheet

The third speaking activity is called The same or Different? Print out the following worksheet and cut it in the middle. Students work in pairs. Each has one half of the worksheet and they must not show it to their partner. They ask THERE IS/THERE ARE questions and their task is to find out whether the corresponding pictures are the same or different.

Same or different pdf worksheet
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THERE IS THERE ARE questions – quiz

The following quiz can help your students practise the THERE IS/THERE ARE questions either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the beginnings and ends of the questions. In the second part, students have to complete the questions and the answers. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

There is and there are questions
Articles with names
Articles with names

The following post on the usage of articles with proper names is not going to be 100% grammatically correct. It’s not that I’m going to insert typos here and there. What I mean is that the rules stated here are just rules of thumb and will not work all the time. I am not a grammarian; I am a teacher. Thus my aim is to compress complex grammar into a small pill that learners can take whenever they encounter a problem. Using this pill, students will make some mistakes, but most of the time they will get the grammar correct.
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[showmyads] So in this post you will find a simple infographic explaining the usage of the definite article in front of proper names. There are also several games you can use to practise the most common English names. I hope you will find the explanation useful even though it will not work in all cases.

Articles with names – infographic

Ask your students to look at the infographic. Explain that using the definite article before names is very complicated in English and there are very few rules to guide them.
However, as they can see from the infographic, we managed to come up with a few.

Articles with names

Articles – full size image

Explanation: Most of the man-made structures that stand outside (where they get rained on) do not take an article. Most of the buildings where common people go inside to enjoy themselves take the article THE. Thus it is Oxford Street, but the Ritz Hotel. Notice that palaces do not take the article THE because they are not for common people. However, the Tower of London takes the because it is for the common people :-).

Articles with names – infographic

Now that you have explained the grammar, it is time to practise the grammar. You can use either some worksheets, or you can try our games here.

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

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[showmyadsa] The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct options. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the names that take articles 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.

How are you?
How are you?

Yesterday English Through Music published an awesome song called “How are you?”. As the song is easy to remember and sing, I contacted Jules and asked him for a permission to write a post around the song. He kindly agreed and here you can see the result.
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[showmyads] This post is mainly for beginners or very young learners of English. It contains the song, an infographic and a simple quiz with games. Moreover, there are several suggestions how to exploit this wonderful materials more.

How are you? – song

The following song was written and published by English Through Music. You can find their website here and there are more wonderful songs at Youtube English Through Music channel.

First listen and sing along:

Other activities you could do:
a) ask the students to perform an action for each of the adjectives (happy – smile, angry – pretend to be angry, etc.)
b) ask the students to listen and draw a picture for each adjective.
c) ask the students to mingle and ask each other “How are you?” and their partner must answer.

I am sure there are many more activities you will come up with. If you do, please share them with us.

Moreover, English Through Music promises to come up with an action video for the song soon.

Past simple and continuous – infographic

Here I have created a simple infographic for learners to take home with them. It presents all the vocabulary taught in the song in a simple and clear way. Pupils can use it to revise the vocabulary at home.

How are you infographic

How are you? – Quiz

Another way in which students can practise what they learnt at home is the following interactive quiz. Of course you can use it at school, too.

The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all electronic devices.
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[showmyadsa] In the first part, students match the pictures and the adjectives. If they succeed they will be rewarded with the game called angry finches.
In the second part they have to write the appropriate adjective into the gap provided. If they pass this quiz too, they can play the game called Math Pop and practise their Maths.

How are you? – quiz
Learn the Parts of Speech
Learn the Parts of Speech

For ESL students and pupils in Great Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries, it is crucial to learn the parts of speech in English. In fact, this knowledge is very useful for EFL learners too, as it helps them get more information from dictionaries and grammar books. And as this topic is not difficult, it is worth spending a few minutes on it.
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[showmyads] In this post there is a wonderful song by Fluency MC, an infographic and several games which will help you master the parts of speech. So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead!!!

Parts of Speech – song

The following song was created by Fluency MC. Listen and sing along. It is easy

Click here to get Fluency MC’s new (and FREE!) YouTube Songbook and to check out his new online speaking and listening program. the Weekly English Workout.
http://fluencymc.com/weekly-english-workout/

Parts of Speech – infographic

The following infographic contains all the information from the song. The parts of speech are organised into a mind map which allows your students to revise the facts. Ask the students to cover either the definitions or the parts of speech and then recall the covered information (They could do this in pairs too).

Parts of Speech infographic

If you want to download the full picture, click the button:

Parts of Speech – infographic

Parts of speech – games

Let’s start with a quiz which will help your students practise the parts of speech either at school or at home. The quiz consists of two parts. In the first part, students should match the words and the names of the parts of speech. In the second part, students have to write the name of the parts of the speech behind the words. The students will be rewarded with a game after each part of the quiz they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Parts of speech – quiz
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[showmyadsa] The second game is called Fling the Teacher. To win the game, you have to answer all the questions by choosing the correct answer. If you answer all the questions correctly you will fling your teacher. (But I am sure, that he/she will not mind as long as you know all the parts of speech 🙂 ). The game is in Flash and it will only play on desktop computers.
Parts of speech – Fling the teacher
To practise the parts of speech you can play the following game. Its name is En Garde. Your task is to choose the correct answer and then stop the target as close to the centre as possible. Hopefully, you will be faster and more accurate then your opponent. The game is in Flash and will play only on desktops:
Parts of speech – En Garde game
The last game is called Penalty Shootout. In this game you should choose the correct part of speechand then try to score a goal. Good luck.
As the game is in Flash, it will only play on desktop computers.
Parts of speech – Penalty game

Learn the parts of Speech

School subjects – speaking activities
School subjects – speaking activities

Speaking activities are the most important component of English courses using communicative approach. However, it is very difficult to find quality speaking activities that would work. That is why I would like to publish a speaking activity here once a week. All the activities will be based on the recommendations given by Keith S. Folse in his wonderful book The Art of Teaching Speaking.
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[showmyads] In the first post I offer you two pair speaking activities using school subjects and the verb HAVE. Let’s start!

School subjects – language for the activity

To be able to complete the task successfully, students will need the following sets of language: the verb HAVE (or have got) and the names of the school subjects.

If you have not taught the school subjects yet, it is necessary to do so before you start the speaking activities. For the following tasks, your students need to know the following school subjects:

School subjects mind map web

The other set of language your students need to know is the usage of the verb HAVE for questions like “What subject has she got on Monday?” or sentences like “She has chemistry on Monday at 11 o’clock.” You can find materials for teaching the verb HAVE GOT here. Once your students know the vocabulary and grammar you can move to the next part. Please, do not skip this step. Otherwise, your students might be either very quiet or use their native language to accomplish the tasks.

School subjects – speaking activities

In my experience students speak most when they work in pairs or groups of three. In bigger groups some students tend to dominate the task and some opt for not doing anything. That is why all of these tasks are designed for pairs or small groups.

The first activity is called Information gap. In this task students trade missing pieces of information to complete their sheet.

Information gap – in class

Put the students in pairs.

Hould up an example of the two sheets and explain that you’ll give each pair an A sheet and a B sheet.

Each sheet has a school timetable, but each sheet has only part of the timetable. Pairs need to work together to find out their missing information so that they end up with two complete and identical sheets.

Distribute the papers. Tell them not to look at each other’s papers. Let the students do the task.
Once they finish they can show each other the sheets and compare them.

Here are the two sheets:

Pair speaking activity School subjects

Pair speaking activity School subjects sheets

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Battle: Find it first – in class

In this task, students work in groups of three and they take turns asking yes/no questions to identify the picture that one student has in mind.

Print out one copy of the sheet (all 9 timetables) for each student.

Hold up one of the sheets and show everyone that the sheet contains nine timetables that are similar yet different. Students need to listen, think and then ask questions so that they can guess which picture the person is thinking about.

Put the students in groups of three.

Student A will pick a timetable and then students B and C will take turns asking yes/no questions to try to identify A’s timetable. B begins with a yes/no question. If A answers yes then B continues. If A answers no, then c asks a question. The goal is the to be the person who gets a yes answer to the a question such as, “Is it Jane’s timetable?”

After B or C has guessed A’s timetable, then A and C try to guess B’s timetable. Finally, A and B try to guess C’s timetable.

The winner is the student who guesses most timetables.

Here is the sheet each students should get:
Speaking activity school subjects timetables

I hope that you find the School subjects – speaking activities useful and that you will use them in your classes. You can download the worksheets in pdf here. All the pictures are in much better quality here:

School subjects speaking activities worksheet

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

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:

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

How to teach collocations with HAVE # 2
How to teach collocations with HAVE # 2

This is the second post in which engames.eu has joined forces with Fluency MC to provide materials for teaching collocations with the verb HAVE. In this post we teach the collocations from the second part of Jason’s rap song.
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In this post you will find the song, an infographic, two interactive quizzes and a game. We hope you will find the post interesting and useful. If you have any suggestions about how we can improve our effort, please leave a comment.

Collocations with HAVE – song


Ask your students to listen to the following song and complete the second part of the lyrics (the third verse starts at 1:30.)

Listen and complete the lyrics:

Have collocations lyrics 2

If you dare, you can sing along with Jason 🙂

Collocations with HAVE – infographic

Display the following infographics and go through the information to clarify the meaning of the more difficult phrases. If you teach a monolingual class, translate the phrases into your students’ mother tongue.

have collocations 2 full web

Once the students understand the collocations ask them to work in pairs and ask and answer the questions in the outside circle. In this way they can practise the collocations in a communicative way.

Collocations with HAVE – online quizzes


Both of the quizzes are made in HTML5 so they will play on computers and all mobile devices. In the first quiz, you have to drag the correct words into the correct places. If you pass the test, you can play the game Angry Farmer as a reward.

In the second quiz you should match the collocations and their definitions and then write the collocations. Once again, if you pass the test, you can play a game.

To play on the full screen, click here:
Quiz – full screen

The game contains questions from the first post on collocations with HAVE and this post. You can practise all the collocations with HAVE here.
Click the dice in the right hand corner and then move your counter. If you step on a question mark, you have to answer a question. If you answer correctly, you will move forward. If not, you will move back.
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To play on the full screen, click here:

Quiz – full screen

Fluency MC – videos


If you like Jason’s song, have a look at some more by him:

Collocations with HAVE – download


You can download the quiz here:

Have collocations 2 (Web)

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.

The verb have got
The verb have got

For an unknown reason many elementary textbooks teach HAVE GOT at the very beginning. Students find it difficult and they get confused. Moreover, they get even more fed up when they learn that the Americans do not use this form.
But I have to teach the grammar, so there is no use crying over spilt milk. To be honest, I was not very successful the last time I taught this grammar, and that is why I decided to create some new materials.
In this post you will find a song, an infographic, a worksheet with communicative activities, and an interactive online quiz.

Have got – song


Start the lesson with the following song. Ask the students to listen and complete the lyrics. Check their answers and ask the students to listen and sing along. In this way they will practise their pronunciation and grammar at the same time.
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Have got song lyrics

Have got – infographic

Now draw the students’ attention to the following infographic. Explain the form of the verb have got. This may be the right time to drill the form.

Have got full infographic

Once you have explained the grammar, it is time to practise it using the following worksheet. Download it and print it out.

Have got communicative worksheet

Ask the students to work in pairs. They must not show their pictures to their partners.
In the first exercise they look at their picture and write what they have in the bag.
In the second exercise they write questions asking whether their partner has the same things in their bag . When the students finish writing their questions, they work in pairs and ask and answer in pairs.
In the third exercise, the students look at their bags. Then they look at the objects on the right. They ask their partner whether Jane or David has these things in their bags. They tick or cross out the objects in their pictures.

Have got – online quiz


The following quiz can be taken at school or you canask your students to do it at home.
In the first part, the students should write correct sentences about the pictures using HAVE GOT. If they produce enough correct sentences, they will be able to play the game called Angry Farmer.
In the second part of the quiz they should first match the pictures and the words and then write them. In the last part of the quiz they have to write the correct answers. Again, if the students pass the quiz they will be rewarded with a game. This time they should write the words they see in the picture (of course, in English).


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Have got online quiz – full screen

Weather vocabulary
Weather vocabulary

Weather is one of the most common conversational topics in Britain. Therefore, if you know the basic vocabulary, you can talk to 60 million people. With 60 million conversation opportunities, it is well worth the little effort you need to put in.
To make it as enjoyable as possible, there are several activities to help you learn all the words: a pictionary, a worksheet, a video and an interactive test.
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Weather – infographic


You can learn the vocabulary using the following infographic or pictionary:

Weather forecast vocabulary

To get the pronunciation right, listen and repeat the words in the following video:

After you learn the words, it is time to practise using the new vocabulary. First, you can try the following worksheet. Try to solve all of the puzzles.

Weather vocabulary – quiz


The following interactive quiz is made in HTML5, so it will play on all mobile devices. Therefore, you can practise all of the words wherever you are.

If you would like to display the quiz on the entire screen, click the button below:

Weather vocabulary – further resources


You can find a lot of information about weather at British Council site.

I like the following songs about weather:

Present simple tense for elementary students
Present simple tense for elementary students

Present simple is one of the most important tenses in English. It is quite easy to teach and learn but it must be done properly. In this post I am going to teach some vocabulary first and then teach the forms using the verbs.
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In this post you can find a worksheet, a video and an interactive quiz to teach the vocabulary for daily activities. Once your students know the verbs it is time to introduce the forms – present simple tense affirmative, present simple tense negative and present simple tense questions.

Daily activities


First have a look at the following pictionary:
Daily routine pictionary

If you need the pronunciation, you should try the following video. In the second part of the video there is a quiz to practise the words. There appear the words and you have about 3 seconds to say the word before you hear it.

Daily activities – worksheets


To practise the vocabulary there are several activities. The first one is an interactive quiz. You have three tasks. First, match the words and the pictures, second, click the correct image and third write the words. The quiz is in HTML5 so it will work anywhere.

If you would like to play the quiz on the full screen, click the following button.
Daily activities – quiz

There are four more activities in a print form. Print out the following worksheets and solve them:
Daily routine_worksheet

When the students know the vocabulary, I believe it is time to introduce the grammar.

Daily activities – song


Here is a short song to practise the daily activities. It may serve as a good way to introduce the grammar too, as all the sentences are in present simple tense.

You could just play the song to the students or you could ask them to listen and complete the lyrics
I wake up in the morning

Present simple tense – grammar


Here is the infographic for present simple tense:
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Present simpe tense complet mind map

The infographic contains a lot of details. If you think it would be too much for your students, feel free to cut it into parts and present the different forms at different times.

Present simple tense – stories


To help my students remember the grammar, I tell stories. I tell them in their mother tongue as their purpose is to help the students remember the grammar. I have already presented the story about questions here and you can find it in our post on Questions.
Here, there are two more stories to highlight the grammar.
The first story explains why people use the ending -s in third person singular.
In English there is the sound PSST which is used to draw someone’s attention. A long long time ago people did not gossip. But then they started to speak about someone else but no one listened. But those people who gossiped needed attention so they started to use the PSST sound. They said:
Nikola (
use students’ names, it is more fun and people listen) cook PSST very badly.
Adam play PSST football. Jane like PSST English. And so on.
And as people spoke quicker and quicker they soon reduced the PSST sound to the ending -s. So ever since when we speak about 1 person who is not me or you, we use the ending -s.

The other story explains the usage of DON’T.
Do you know what sound do bells make in English. DING DONG! It is very important because I will tell you a story that happened in the year 756. On 15th June suddenly three bells fell from a church tower in the English town Epston and they became alive. Suddenly they had legs and they walked around the country. And they spoke. People came to them and they asked them. “Do you live here?” “We,” started the bells but suddenly the sound DONG came from inside, “DONG live here.”
“Do you like music?” people asked.
“We DONG like music?”
“Do you do any work?”
“We DONG work.”
People spoke about these bells everywhere. “They dong like music.” “They dong work.” And as the time passed they changed the DONG sound to don’t and ever since we use DON’T in negative sentences. Later people added the form DOESN’T in third person singular.
And what happened to the bells? As they could not do anything they put them back on the tower and they never became alive again.

Present simple tense – grammar practice


To practice the grammar I have created the following interactive quizzes.
The first quiz is a game calleed On Target. Your aim is to choose the correct answer and then shoot as many bad ducks as possible. You can shoot a bottle on the side too and win a bonus. The game is in flash and it plays on desktops only.

To play the game on the full screen, click the button below.

Present simple tense – On Target

The second quiz is in HTML5 and thus it will play everywhere.

To play the game on the full screen, click the button below.

Present simple tense – QUIZ

Present simple tense – Communicative activities


You might miss here a worksheet with some communicative activities. So do I. But as I do not have any I would like to ask you to send me yours. If it is good and I decide to publish it here, I will Paypal you 10$. Please send the worksheets to rotreklzdenek@gmail.com. Thank you.
Remember the worksheets have to be your own.

Irregular verbs in context – Scream
Irregular verbs in context – Scream

Teaching irregular verbs can be fun. The verbs are easy to use to tell stories and stories are interesting for everyone.
In the following post I am going to tell a story and you can learn the past tense of ten irregular verbs there.
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To achieve this there are a video, a worksheet, a comic and an interactive quiz. I hope you will find them interesting.

Scream story – video


Watch the following story. The story is easy to follow as the colour follows the voice.

If you prefer telling the story yourself, you can use the following comic:
Irregular verbs in context Scream story

Scream story – worksheet


Once you introduce the story, it is time to deal with the language. First, translate the words in the table and then ask the students to read the story again and answer the comprehension questions. Of, course you can play the video instead.
Then ask the students to complete the text and in the end ask them to solve the crossword. Once they solve the crossword using the past tense ask them to work in pairs and retell the story using the comic.

Past-simple-story_scream_original_ws_better

Irregular verbs – interactive quiz


When you finish the worksheet, you can ask the students to do the following interactive quiz. As the quiz is in HTML5 they could try it out on their mobiles or you could do it on an interactive whiteboard.

If you want to play the quiz on the full screen, click the button below.
IRREGULAR VERBS SCREAM STORY

Irregular verbs – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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Scream

Irregular verbs – more resources


If you would like to practise a bit more, here are several resources you might like.
Irregular verbs in context
Teach 9 irregular verbs in context
Several videos:

Other sites:
British council site
Learn English for teenagers

Office equipment vocabulary
Office equipment vocabulary

Most of the people who learn English spend their life in an office. Therefore it is neccessary for them to learn the names of the equipment there.
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In this post I introduce 25 office vocabulary items in an infographic and a video. You can then practise all the words in interactive quizzes (over 70 quiz questions) and in a paper worksheet. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can share the activities.

Office Equipment – infographic


The following infographic contains 25 vocabulary items. Students should first study the picture and try to remember the meaning of the words.

Office vocabulary infographic

You can practise or learn the correct pronunciation of the words in the following video. Simply, listen and repeat:

Office Equipment – quizzes


The activities above are ideal to introduce the words and their meaning. However, to really learn the words, you have to use them and practise them. In the following quizzes you have to produce the words and thus there is a bigger chance that you will remember them.
The first quiz is interactive and as it is in HTML 5, it will play on any mobile device.

Office equipment – full screen quiz

If you do not like doing quizzes on the screen, you can print out the following pdf files and use them instead. There are several tasks to practise all the words.

Office vocabulary worksheet

Office vocabulary key

Office vocabulary – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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Office Vocabulary

Wish clauses for intermediate students
Wish clauses for intermediate students

In the following post intermediate students of English can learn to form wish clauses starting with I WISH or IF ONLY. In my opinion wish clauses are quite easy to master. However, if you feel it differently, there are several helpful features to change your mind. There are several interactive quizzes, an explanatory video and an infographic.
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If you have a blog or a website, where you would like to share the content published here, you can do so by downloading the zip file at the end of the post and uploading it to your web.

Wish clauses – infographic


The following infographic contains the basic explanation how to form wish clauses.
Wish clauses infographic
I did not manage to get into the infographic several pieces of information. First, if you regret something something that you did not do in the past and you use the verb could, you do not use the past perfect tense but you use the form COULD HAVE DONE something.
Second, we use the from I WISH somebody WOULD do something, if we are angry and we would like someone to change their behaviour right now and keep it changed in the future too.
Third, in wish clauses we can use WERE instead of WAS and it is still correct.

Wish clauses – video


At BBClearningEnglish.com they publish great materials for learning English. However, most often than not they publish their material as an mp3 file instead of video. That is why I have turned their wonderful Grammar Challenge on regrets into the following video.

You can find the original mp3 file at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/922_gramchallenge5/

Wish clauses – quizzes


The following interactive quizzes are in HTML5 so they will play in all browsers on all mobile devices.
The quizzes contain nearly 30 sentences to practise the grammar. If you pass the test you can play a short game.

If you prefer doing the quiz on the full screen click the button below:

WISH CLAUSES – full screen quiz

WISH CLAUSES – flash quiz
https://engames.eu/grammar/wish_clauses/new_version/Wish clauses quiz_flash (Web)/index.html
If you feel you have not had enough practice, you can go to British council site and try the quizzes there.

Wish clauses – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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wish clauses002

Little and Few – learn the difference
Little and Few – learn the difference

The difference between LITTLE and FEW, especially when you add A LITTLE and A FEW, causes a lot of problems event to students whose English is really good. In this post I try to teach the difference in a graphical way. Having studied the infographic, you should try the interactive quiz and check whether you really got the grammar right.

Few and Little – infographics


Study the infographic. Notice the difference between A LITTLE and LITTLE. If there is the article A – it means that there is some. Without the article we say that there is not enough of something.
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Few and little infographic

If you think you understand the concept, it is time to check your understanding in the following quiz.

Few and Little – quiz


The following quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all mobile devices. If you pass the test, you will be given the chance to play the game TIC-TAC-TOE against the computer. Remember that it is possible to beat the computer, but it might take you some time before you find the correct way.

You can take the quiz on the full screen by clicking the button:
Few and little – full screen

Few and Little – more practice


If you feel you need more practice, you should try the following pages:

The difference between Little and Few is a part of a larger concept called countability in English. If you would like to understand the whole concept, I can recommend the following posts:

Little and Few – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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Few and little (Web)

Possessive case #2
Possessive case #2

I have already published a post on possessive case. But when I tried to teach it again, I found out that it was not clear enough for the group I am teaching now. So I created a new infographic and several new interactive exercises in which students can practise the grammar. And my new students understand it now nearly perfectly. I hope you will find these materials useful too.
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Possessive case – infographic


Have a look at this infographic and see how we form the possessive case in English.
Possessive case mind map
To cut the explanation short, add the apostrophe+s to a singular noun and add only the apostrophe to a regular plural noun. If the noun has an irregular plural add the apostrophe+s. If you feel that you understand the grammar, it is high time to practise it in the following exercises.

Possessive case – quiz


The following quiz is in HTML5, so it will work on all mobile devices. Thus your students can practise the grammar anywhere they like. If they pass the quiz they will be given a chance to play a game as a reward.

If you feel that the quiz is too small, click the button below and play the game on the full screen.

Possessive case – quiz full screen

If you are looking for more practise I recommend British Council page on possessive case.

Possessive case – share

If you like the quiz above and you would like to share it on your blog or use it in a classroom without an internet connection, you can do this. You can download all the files here and upload them to your site just unpack the files and use them in the classroom:
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Possessive case_quiz (Web)

Learn 10 new words in 16 minutes
Learn 10 new words in 16 minutes

There is the famous quote which says that you can say very little without grammar but you can say nothing without vocabulary. I completely agree, and that is why I have created the following post. I aim to teach intermediate students 10 new words.
In this post I am going to teach the words that are among the 4,000 most frequent words. This selection of words is based on Paul Nation´s list of words.
I hope you will find it useful and that you will learn the new words quickly.
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Vocabulary Lesson 1 – mind map

First, you should study the words in the following infographic. I try to give the definition of the word, a clue to remember the word quicker, and some example sentences. I honestly hope these will help you learn the vocabulary better and quicker.
Vocabulary infographics 02

Vocabulary Lesson 1 – interactive quiz

You can practise the vocabulary now in the following interactive quiz. The quiz is in HTML5 and it will play on all mobile devices.


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Interactive quiz – full screen

If you cannot do the quiz above, you can print out the following document and practise the vocabulary there.

Vocabulary_4000_02 worksheet
vocabulary_4000_02_key