ESL Parts of Speech
Activities, Games & Worksheets
Bring words to life with engaging classroom practice. Explore practical resources that help students understand how words work together and use them confidently.
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Give students the language to discuss ideas, feelings and qualities that cannot be touched or seen. They learn to recognise abstract nouns in context and choose words that express their meaning more precisely.
Grammar focus: Identifying and using abstract nouns, including uncountable forms, in sentences and conversation.
Resource types: Abstract noun worksheets, sentence-completion games, points-betting activities, conversation questions and a board game.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Build a wider descriptive vocabulary by connecting adjectives with their opposites. Students use these contrasts to explain preferences, describe differences and express their own ideas with more precise word choices.
Grammar focus: Common and more advanced adjective opposites, with additional synonym practice.
Resource types: Adjective opposites worksheets, word searches, crosswords, bingo, a board game, guessing games and story writing.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make descriptions sound more natural when several adjectives come before a noun. Students consider what each adjective tells the reader and arrange the details in a clear, familiar sequence.
Grammar focus: Adjective categories and their usual order before nouns, including descriptions of clothing.
Resource types: Adjective order worksheets, categorising and sentence-rewriting exercises, drawing-and-guessing games and a board game.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Develop a feel for words that naturally belong together. Students move beyond choosing an adjective simply because its meaning seems suitable and learn combinations they can use in descriptions and conversation.
Grammar focus: Common and more advanced adjective-noun combinations, their meanings and use in sentences.
Resource types: Worksheets, dominoes, sentence races, miming and guessing games, conversation questions and collaborative story writing.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Choose the right preposition when expanding a description. Students learn which prepositions fit common expressions and apply these combinations when describing experiences, interests and opinions.
Grammar focus: Adjective-preposition patterns and their use in statements and questions.
Resource types: Adjective-preposition worksheets, matching and gap-fills, picture descriptions, conversation questions, guessing games, Connect Four and a board game.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Build descriptions that tell a listener more than the name of a person, place or thing. Learners progress from basic descriptions to more expressive vocabulary and choose adjectives that suit what they want to say.
Grammar focus: Basic and common adjectives, opposites, synonyms, extreme adjectives and descriptive word combinations.
Resource types: Adjective worksheets, flashcards, picture matching, bingo, crosswords, board games, speaking activities and descriptive writing.
Levels: Beginner (A1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Clarify the difference between a feeling and the person, thing or situation that causes it. Students choose adjective endings that convey the intended meaning when discussing reactions and experiences.
Grammar focus: Forming and using '-ed' and '-ing' adjectives to describe feelings and characteristics.
Resource types: Worksheets, matching and error correction, sentence-completion discussions, card games, descriptions and email writing.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Give learners more ways to explain how they feel and respond to other people's experiences. The collection extends from basic feelings and physical states to more detailed descriptions of emotional reactions.
Grammar focus: Feeling and emotion adjectives, physical states and related '-ed' and '-ing' forms.
Resource types: Feelings worksheets, flashcards, snap, information gaps, crosswords, running dictations, miming and board games.
Levels: Beginner (A1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Express personal reactions with more variety than simply saying something is good or bad. A wider choice of opinion adjectives helps learners describe their reactions to people, places and experiences more precisely.
Grammar focus: Positive, negative and neutral opinion adjectives, opposites and appropriate use in context.
Resource types: Worksheets, reading tasks, guessing games, dominoes, crosswords, a board game and conversation questions.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make descriptions of amounts more precise. Students consider what a quantity word means in context and which nouns it can accompany, helping them explain how much or how many they mean.
Grammar focus: Adjectives of quantity, noun combinations and distinctions between commonly confused forms.
Resource types: Worksheets, matching and categorising tasks, running dictation, dominoes, pelmanism, conversation questions and a board game.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Show how the position of an adverb affects the clarity and natural flow of a sentence. Students learn to place different types of adverbs appropriately, including in sentences that contain more than one adverb.
Grammar focus: Adverb types, placement and ordering in sentences and dialogue.
Resource types: Adverb order worksheets, sentence rewriting, an error-correction betting game, running dictation and dialogue-ordering activities.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Add precision to descriptions by exploring adverbs that combine naturally with particular adjectives. Students use these pairings to express their ideas more clearly and develop a wider range of descriptive language.
Grammar focus: Forming and using adverb-adjective collocations in sentences and questions.
Resource types: Pair and group speaking activities, collocation matching, sentence gap-fills and conversation questions with controlled and freer practice.
Levels: Upper-intermediate (B2).
Explore how a small word can confirm, deny or qualify a statement. Students consider the speaker's meaning and choose adverbs that make their position clearer in personal statements and responses.
Grammar focus: Adverbs of affirmation and negation, their meanings and position in sentences.
Resource types: Worksheets, word-order tasks, sentence-completion races, true-or-false speaking games and a board game.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Help learners express how strong a feeling, quality or action is. Students choose language that reflects the degree they intend, rather than relying on the same intensifying word in every description.
Grammar focus: Adverbs of degree, their meanings, placement and use with adjectives and verbs.
Resource types: Adverbs of degree worksheets, guided writing, sentence matching, guessing games, card races and conversation questions.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Describe routines more accurately by showing how often things happen. Students distinguish regular habits from occasional events and use frequency language to compare their own experiences with those of classmates.
Grammar focus: Adverbs and expressions of frequency, sentence position and 'How often' questions.
Resource types: Adverbs of frequency worksheets, timetable reading, class surveys, guessing games, card games and board games.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Explain how an action happens, not just what someone does. Students connect manner adverbs with suitable verbs and use these combinations to make descriptions of everyday activities more informative.
Grammar focus: Forming regular and irregular manner adverbs, adjective-adverb contrasts and verb-adverb combinations.
Resource types: Adverbs of manner worksheets, crosswords, battleships, Connect Four, pelmanism, miming, discussions and a board game.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make it clear where something happens or where someone goes. Students develop a useful range of place adverbs and learn how their use differs from related prepositional expressions.
Grammar focus: Adverbs of place, their meanings and use in sentences, including contrasts with prepositions.
Resource types: Worksheets, dominoes, sentence-completion races, drawing-and-guessing games, picture descriptions and a board game.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Put events into a clear time frame so listeners can follow when things happen. The practice connects time expressions with past events, current activities and plans, helping learners make the timing clear.
Grammar focus: Definite and indefinite time adverbs, relationships in time, frequency and relevant verb forms.
Resource types: Adverbs of time worksheets, schedules, information gaps, conversation questions, miming games and sentence-ordering races.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Make the choice between a general reference and a particular person or thing clearer. Students explore when an article is needed and apply that choice in everyday sentences and longer pieces of writing.
Grammar focus: 'A', 'an', 'the' and no article, including definite and indefinite reference.
Resource types: Worksheets on articles, matching games, gap-fills, error correction, quizzes, collaborative stories and a speaking board game.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Describe actions that someone arranges, encourages, permits or requires another person to do. Students consider who performs the action and choose a structure that makes the relationship between the people clear.
Grammar focus: Causative patterns with 'have', 'get', 'make', 'let' and 'help', including 'have/get something done'.
Resource types: Worksheets, sentence rewriting, dominoes, class interviews, conversation questions and a true-or-false board game.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Introduce useful ways to refer to a group as a whole. Students connect collective nouns with the people, animals or things they describe and use these combinations in meaningful statements and questions.
Grammar focus: Recognising collective nouns and choosing appropriate collective noun combinations.
Resource types: Collective noun worksheets, matching and gap-fill tasks, ranking exercises, guessing quizzes and a board game.
Levels: Upper-intermediate (B2).
Clarify the difference between a general name and the name of a particular person, place or thing. Students apply this distinction when choosing words and deciding where capital letters belong.
Grammar focus: Identifying common and proper nouns, categorising examples and using capital letters correctly.
Resource types: Worksheets, word-association games, sorting tasks, spelling races, true-or-false decisions and sentence formation.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to pre-intermediate (A2).
Show students how two words can work together to create a more specific description. They explore the meaning of compound adjectives and use them to express ideas more concisely and accurately.
Grammar focus: Compound adjective formation, meanings and use when describing nouns.
Resource types: Compound adjective worksheets, word-building and matching tasks, gap-fills, betting games, miming, guessing and pair speaking activities.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Expand vocabulary by exploring how familiar words combine to name something different. Understanding each whole expression helps learners use compound nouns accurately in their own sentences and explanations.
Grammar focus: Forming compound nouns, interpreting their meanings and recognising nouns that modify other nouns.
Resource types: Worksheets, dominoes, pelmanism, drawing-and-guessing games, definition tasks, word-building races and conversation questions.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Connect noun meaning with things students can experience through their senses. Learners distinguish concrete nouns from abstract nouns and choose nouns that fit the situation they want to describe.
Grammar focus: Recognising concrete nouns and using them appropriately in sentences.
Resource types: Concrete noun worksheets, identification and matching tasks, sentence gap-fills, miming games and question-and-answer guessing activities for pairs and groups.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1).
Build clearer connections between ideas instead of leaving every thought in a separate sentence. Students choose linking language that expresses the relationship they mean, from simple additions to reasons and contrasts.
Grammar focus: Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, related sentence connectors and punctuation.
Resource types: Conjunction worksheets, matching games, bingo, dominoes, running dictation, board games and collaborative story building.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make noun choices clearer when talking about objects, substances and quantities. Students consider whether something is treated as countable or uncountable and apply that distinction in statements and questions.
Grammar focus: Countability, singular and plural forms, and appropriate quantity expressions.
Resource types: Countable and uncountable noun worksheets, crosswords, categorising tasks, pelmanism, information exchanges, guessing games and a board game.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Point out people and things clearly by combining a demonstrative with a noun. Students consider distance and number so their listener can identify exactly which item or items they mean.
Grammar focus: 'This', 'that', 'these' and 'those' before nouns, with singular and plural agreement.
Resource types: Worksheets, picture prompts, matching, conversation completion, miming and guessing, drawing activities and board games.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to pre-intermediate (A2).
Refer to people and things without repeating their names each time. Students use distance, number and context to choose a demonstrative pronoun that makes the reference clear to a listener or reader.
Grammar focus: 'This', 'that', 'these' and 'those' as pronouns, including near and far reference.
Resource types: Worksheets, picture matching, pelmanism, drawing-and-guessing games, text identification and sentence-rewriting tasks.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Build confidence choosing the preposition that belongs with a familiar word. Students learn useful combinations as connected expressions and apply them when communicating their own ideas, rather than translating each word separately.
Grammar focus: Prepositions used with particular verbs, nouns and adjectives.
Resource types: Dependent preposition worksheets, categorising tasks, dominoes, a board game, class surveys and guided discussions.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Talk about people, things and places when their exact identity is unknown or unimportant. Students choose pronouns that express the intended meaning without naming every person or item directly.
Grammar focus: Indefinite pronouns, their categories and use in statements and questions.
Resource types: Indefinite pronoun worksheets, gap-fills, sentence races, running dictation, mingling activities, guided discussions and a board game.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Adjust the strength of a description or opinion to match what the speaker means. Students explore how strengthening or softening an expression changes its effect and gives them more control over their message.
Grammar focus: Intensifiers and mitigators, appropriate combinations and placement in sentences.
Resource types: Worksheets, text-identification tasks, sentence rewriting, rating and discussion activities, guessing games and a miming board game.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1).
Give students useful language for short, spontaneous reactions. They consider the situation and the feeling being expressed, then choose an interjection that makes their response sound appropriate and natural.
Grammar focus: Interjection meanings and use in context to express reactions and emotions.
Resource types: Interjection worksheets, matching and gap-fills, sentence completion, dominoes, bingo, a board game and pair discussions.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Discover what classmates can do now and how their abilities have changed. Students distinguish present and past ability and choose suitable forms when describing skills and achievements in different time frames.
Grammar focus: 'Can', 'can't', 'could', 'couldn't' and 'be able to' for ability.
Resource types: Worksheets, surveys, information gaps, guessing games, true-or-false storytelling, question-prompt activities and written summaries.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Use clues to consider what might be true and explain how certain an idea is. Students compare possible explanations and choose language that reflects the strength of the available evidence.
Grammar focus: Present and past deduction and speculation, including modal verbs followed by 'have' and a past participle.
Resource types: Worksheets, clue-writing tasks, guessing games, matching, group discussions and a board game.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Explain what needs to happen, what is optional and what was necessary in the past. Students make these distinctions when discussing choices and giving reasons for actions in different situations.
Grammar focus: Necessity and lack of necessity in present, future and past contexts, with separate practice of prohibition using 'mustn't'.
Resource types: Gap-fill activities, card-matching games, role-guessing tasks, sentence writing and guided discussions.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make rules and responsibilities clear in familiar settings, including school, work and home. Students distinguish actions that are required from those that are forbidden, permitted or unnecessary.
Grammar focus: Obligation, prohibition and related permission forms, including 'must', 'mustn't', 'have to', 'had to' and 'weren't allowed to'.
Resource types: Worksheets, information gaps, surveys, rule-writing tasks, guessing games, running dictation and a board game.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Talk about possible events without presenting every prediction as a fact. Students compare how likely something seems and choose language that communicates the degree of certainty they intend.
Grammar focus: Modal verbs such as 'may', 'might' and 'could', predictions with 'will' and 'won't', and related adverbs such as 'probably'.
Resource types: Worksheets, clue-writing games, discussions, surveys, summaries and a board game.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Bring sound into descriptions with words that suggest the noises they name. Students connect sound words with people, animals and objects, then choose expressions that fit the situation they want to describe.
Grammar focus: Recognising onomatopoeic words, their meanings and appropriate use in context.
Resource types: Onomatopoeia worksheets, matching and categorising exercises, a crossword, listing examples and listening-and-matching group games.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Explore how a word's job contributes to the meaning of a sentence. Recognising word classes in context helps learners build clearer, more accurate sentences of their own.
Grammar focus: Recognising and using parts of speech, word-class distinctions and sentence structure.
Resource types: Parts of speech worksheets, categorising tasks, bingo, dominoes, guessing games, error correction and conversation questions.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to advanced (C1).
Develop confidence with everyday expressions whose meaning may differ from the individual words. Students learn phrasal verbs in context and use them to describe experiences, ask questions and explain their own ideas.
Grammar focus: Phrasal verb meanings and patterns, combining verbs with particles and working with two- and three-word expressions.
Resource types: Phrasal verb worksheets, crosswords, miming, quizzes, conversation activities and board games.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make ownership and relationships clear without unnecessarily repeating nouns. Comparing the forms helps learners choose how to say who something belongs to in different sentence patterns.
Grammar focus: Possessive adjectives, possessive pronouns and possessive nouns, including apostrophe placement.
Resource types: Worksheets on possessive forms, matching and memory games, sentence rewriting, error correction, question-and-answer activities and listening-and-summarising tasks.
Levels: Beginner (A1) to intermediate (B1).
Use the beginnings of words as clues to meaning. Recognising how a prefix changes a familiar word helps learners interpret new vocabulary and choose a form that fits the sentence.
Grammar focus: Prefix meanings, word formation, negative prefixes and antonyms.
Resource types: Prefix worksheets, word searches, pelmanism, matching games, sentence gap-fills, conversation questions and crossword-clue activities.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to advanced (C1).
Describe routes and movement so another person can picture where someone or something goes. Students compare similar prepositions and choose the one that best expresses the path of an action.
Grammar focus: Prepositions of movement, including distinctions between 'across', 'over' and 'through'.
Resource types: Prepositions of movement worksheets, matching and multiple-choice exercises, sentence rewriting, pelmanism and sentence-building games.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2).
Give clear information about where people and objects are. Students relate descriptions to pictures, maps and familiar spaces, helping them understand locations and explain them accurately to someone else.
Grammar focus: Prepositions of place and their use in location statements and questions.
Resource types: Prepositions of place worksheets, information gaps, map labelling, picture dictation, drawing, listening activities and guessing games.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to pre-intermediate (A2).
Make the timing of routines, plans and events easier to understand. Students choose prepositions that fit different time expressions and use them to communicate when something happens or how long it continues.
Grammar focus: 'In', 'on' and 'at', alongside other prepositions used with time expressions.
Resource types: Prepositions of time worksheets, surveys, matching games, dominoes, quizzes, invitations and board games.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Describe origins and associations with greater accuracy. Students connect proper nouns with their adjective forms and pay attention to the spelling and capital letters needed when using them in sentences.
Grammar focus: Proper adjective formation, geographical adjectives, suffixes, irregular forms and capitalisation.
Resource types: Proper adjective worksheets, categorising and error-correction exercises, word-formation tasks, a pair crossword and a board game.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Express amounts clearly without always giving an exact number. Students consider whether a noun is countable or uncountable and choose quantity language that suits the meaning of their statement or question.
Grammar focus: Quantifiers and quantity expressions, including 'some', 'any', 'much', 'many' and 'How much/How many'.
Resource types: Quantifier worksheets, information gaps, guessing games, error correction, guided email writing and board games.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to intermediate (B1).
Clarify when an action refers back to the person doing it. Students choose appropriate pronouns and learn when English needs a reflexive form, helping them avoid adding one where it does not belong.
Grammar focus: Reflexive pronoun forms, their uses and reflexive versus non-reflexive verb patterns.
Resource types: Reflexive pronoun worksheets, sentence races, role-plays, guessing activities, class questioning and sentence reformulation.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1).
Make descriptions more vivid by explaining how things look, sound, smell, taste and feel. Sensory language gives listeners useful clues and helps them distinguish one item from another.
Grammar focus: Sense verbs, sensory adjectives and common sentence patterns for describing perceptions.
Resource types: Worksheets, picture matching, crosswords, pelmanism, clue-writing and guessing games, pair descriptions and a five-senses board game.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Make it clear whether a sentence refers to one thing or more than one. Students build accuracy with familiar plural patterns and recognise nouns that require a different spelling or form.
Grammar focus: Regular and irregular plurals, spelling changes and contrasts involving uncountable nouns.
Resource types: Singular and plural noun worksheets, crosswords, card matching, gap-fill guessing activities, error correction and board games.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Express strong reactions while keeping the sentence structure accurate. Students explore how similar meanings can be conveyed through different patterns and choose the form that fits the words that follow.
Grammar focus: 'So' with adjectives and adverbs, and 'such' with noun phrases, including article placement.
Resource types: 'So' and 'such' worksheets, word searches, matching, sentence completion, rewriting exercises and sentence-transformation games.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1).
Keep sentences clear when referring back to people and things. Students identify who performs an action and who or what receives it, then choose a pronoun that fits its position and purpose.
Grammar focus: Subject and object pronouns, reference and appropriate forms after verbs and prepositions.
Resource types: Pronoun worksheets, bingo, pelmanism, dominoes, miming, error correction, conversation questions and information exchanges.
Levels: Beginner (A1) to intermediate (B1).
Build vocabulary by exploring how endings change a word's meaning or function. Recognising related forms helps learners choose the word class needed to complete a sentence accurately.
Grammar focus: Noun and adjective suffixes, word families, spelling and word-class changes.
Resource types: Suffix worksheets, word-completion and matching tasks, error correction, guessing games, sentence-building activities and conversation questions for pair and group practice.
Levels: Intermediate (B1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Explain why something is excessive, sufficient or insufficient for a purpose. Students connect these meanings with practical situations and choose a structure that makes the intended limitation or possibility clear.
Grammar focus: 'Too', 'too much', 'too many' and 'enough', including word order and sentence patterns.
Resource types: Worksheets, information-gap activities, question completion, sentence writing and a board game.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to intermediate (B1).
Make spoken and written ideas easier to follow by showing how they connect. Choosing a suitable linking expression helps learners guide their reader or listener from one point to the next.
Grammar focus: Cause and effect, contrast, concession, condition, sequence, illustration, emphasis and summarising.
Resource types: Transition word worksheets, categorising tasks, sentence rewriting, matching games, completion races and timed discussions.
Levels: Pre-intermediate (A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Build more natural expressions by learning which verbs commonly go with particular nouns. Students apply these combinations when describing everyday actions and experiences, reducing reliance on direct translation.
Grammar focus: Common verb-noun collocations, appropriate verb choice and use in sentences and questions.
Resource types: Verb-noun collocation worksheets, dominoes, bingo, miming and guessing games, board games, sentence writing and conversation questions.
Levels: Elementary (A1/A2) to upper-intermediate (B2).
Give learners a wider range of ways to describe what people do and how things are. Students develop from basic action vocabulary to more precise choices, considering how a verb's meaning affects its use.
Grammar focus: Action and stative verbs, confusing verbs, opposites and common verb combinations.
Resource types: Verb worksheets, flashcards, crosswords, pelmanism, miming, board games, conversation tasks and guided writing.
Levels: Beginner (A1) to upper-intermediate (B2).
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