Language games

When learning a language in a class or with friends there are various games you can play to make the experience fun and more effective.

Who/what am I?
This is a game you can play in any language which involves people having to guess who or what they are using only questions that can be answered with yes or no. So you can ask “Am I on TV?” but not “What am I famous for?”. The names of the people, occupations or things are attached in places where the guessers can’t read them, such as on their backs or foreheads. In classes it’s often the teacher who chooses the people or things. This game is good for practising questions and answers, and for describing people and things. A variation called botticelli, which involves one person thinking of a famous person and the others having to guess who it is.

Kim’s game
This involves building up longer and longer lists of things, often in alphabetical order. It might start with one person saying “I went shopping and I bought an apple”, then the next person says “I went shopping and I bought an apple and a banana”. It’s a good way to practise using vocabulary and can focus on different types of words.

Changing sentences
You start with a sentence and each person changes one aspect of it at time. For example, you could start with the sentence “I went to the cinema last Saturday”, then change it to “I went to the theatre last Saturday”, then “I’m going to a concert next Saturday”, and so. This is a good way to practise using your grammar and vocabulary.