Adjectives ESL Games, Activities and Worksheets

ESL Vocabulary and Speaking Game: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Controlled Practice - Pair Work In this fun game, students practice using basic descriptive adjectives by guessing the characteristics of their partner's everyday items. To start, each student completes a grid by choosing one adjective for each item, selecting from three pairs of opposites: big or small, expensive or cheap, and new or old. Next, students take turns making positive statements to guess the adjectives their partner chose, e.g., 'I think your T-shirt is big.' The partner replies with either 'Yes, my T-shirt is big.' or 'No, my T-shirt is not big.' Students have up to three attempts to guess the correct adjective for each item. If a correct guess is made within three tries, they place a tick in the corresponding box on their partner's grid. If not, they mark it with a cross. Once all items have been guessed, students count their ticks. The student with the most correct guesses wins the detective challenge. show less

ESL Adjectives Game - Vocabulary: Brainstorming, Word Association, Spelling - Pair Work This imaginative adjectives game helps students practice a wide range of common adjectives. First, in pairs, students race to think of and write down a noun that can be described by each pair of adjectives on the worksheet, e.g. for the adjectives tall and strong, students might write 'tree'. The first pair to successfully write down a noun that corresponds to each pair of adjectives wins. After that, pairs have ten minutes to brainstorm and write down all the adjectives they can think of to describe each noun, e.g. for the noun 'tree', students could write brown, big, beautiful, etc. When the time limit has been reached, pairs swap worksheets for marking. Students score one point for each correctly spelled adjective that corresponds to the noun. The pair with the most points wins the game. As a variation, you can make the game harder by telling students they can only write an adjective once. show less

ESL Adjectives Game - Vocabulary: Matching - Group Work In this engaging adjectives game, students play bingo by matching adjectives with various nouns. In groups, students take it in turns to turn over a noun card from the pile. All the students then match the noun with an appropriate adjective on their bingo card and write it in the space provided, e.g. a black cat. After all the students have matched the noun with a suitable adjective, they read their answers to the group to check them. The first student to get four squares in a row wins and shouts 'Bingo!' Students can play several rounds by erasing their answers and swapping bingo cards each time. show less

ESL Adjectives Game - Vocabulary: Gap-fill, Pelmanism - Pair Work In this free adjectives game, students match and complete sentences with common adjectives. In pairs, students take it in turns to turn over one sentence card and one adjective card. If the adjective completes the gap-fill sentence appropriately, the student reads the sentence aloud, replacing the missing word with the adjective on the card. The student then keeps the two cards and has another turn. If the cards don't match, the student turns them back over, and it's the other student's turn to play. The student with the most pairs of cards at the end of the game is the winner. show less

ESL Basic Adjectives Worksheet - Grammar and Vocabulary Exercises: Matching, Categorizing, Gap-fill, Unscrambling In this useful adjectives worksheet, students learn and practice 12 basic adjectives. Students begin by matching adjectives with their opposites. Next, students describe pictures with the adjectives and nouns. After that, students complete sentences with adjectives from a box. Finally, students put words in the correct order to make sentences containing the adjectives from the worksheet. show less

ESL Adjectives Board Game - Vocabulary: Naming Things from Prompts - Group Work In this fun adjectives board game, students name adjectives beginning with a certain letter or name something that is related to an adjective. Players take it in turns to roll the dice and move their counter along the board. When a player lands on a square, the student to their right looks at the category on the square and takes the top card from the corresponding pile, name two or name something. The student then reads the prompt on the card to the player. For the 'name two' category, the player must name two adjectives beginning with a certain letter. For the 'name something' category, the player has to name something related to the adjective indicated on the card. The other students listen and judge the player's response. If the player gives a suitable answer, they stay on the square. If not, the player goes back two spaces. The first student to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL Adjectives Game - Grammar and Vocabulary: Unscrambling, Writing Sentences from Prompts - Pair Work In this enjoyable common adjectives game, students unscramble adjectives and then use each one in a sentence. In pairs, students unscramble common adjectives of opinion, size, shape, age or colour. Pairs score one point for each correct answer. Next, pairs write an example sentence for each adjective based on things in the classroom, e.g. 'My bag is small'. Students write their sentences on the worksheet next to each adjective. Pairs then join with another pair and take it in turns to read one of their sentences to each other. The other pair listens and judges the sentence. If the sentence describes the adjective and is grammatically correct, the pair scores one point. If the sentence is unsuitable or contains a grammar mistake, no points are awarded. The pair with the highest score wins. show less

ESL Adjectives Game - Vocabulary and Speaking: Categorizing, Forming Sentences from Prompts - Group Work In this creative adjectives game, students race to categorize adjectives and then make sentences with them. In teams, students race to categorize the adjectives of opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material and purpose in the box on the worksheet and write them under the appropriate heading. The first team to categorize all the adjectives correctly scores five points. Next, call out an adjective from the worksheet at random, e.g. delicious. The first student to give the correct category (i.e. adjective of opinion) and make a meaningful sentence with the adjective (e.g. This pizza tastes delicious.) scores a point for their team. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. This activity can also be used as a standalone worksheet. show less

ESL Adjectives Activity - Vocabulary and Speaking: Completing Asking and Answering Questions from Prompts, Controlled and Freer Practice - Group and Pair Work In this insightful adjectives speaking activity, students complete, ask and answer conversation questions that contain adjectives. First, students complete conversation questions with adjectives from a box. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group. Students then take turns asking the conversation questions to their partner, who responds accordingly. For the first question in each set, students include the corresponding adjective in their response. Finally, students share what they learned about their partner with the class. show less

ESL Adjectives Worksheet - Vocabulary Exercises: Matching, Identifying, Replacing, Gap-fill In this free adjectives worksheet, students learn and practice adjective synonyms. Students start by reading a story and matching adjectives in bold with their synonyms. Next, students read the rest of the story. When students find a synonym for each adjective shown, they write it above the adjective. Students then move on to replace adjectives in sentences with their synonyms. Lastly, students complete sentences with the adjectives from the story or their synonyms. show less

ESL Adjectives Activity - Vocabulary: Writing Definitions, Describing, Guessing - Group and Pair Work In this inventive adjectives activity, students complete a crossword by describing and guessing common adjectives. In two groups, students invent and write down clues for the adjectives written on their crossword. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take it in turns to ask their partner for a clue to one of their missing adjectives. Their partner reads out the clue for that adjective and the other student tries to guess what it is. If the student correctly guesses the adjective, they write it on their crossword. If not, their partner continues to give more clues until the student is able to guess the word. Afterwards, students check their spelling by comparing crosswords. show less

ESL Adjectives Game - Grammar and Vocabulary: Writing Sentences from Prompts - Group Work Here is an entertaining adjectives game to help students practice making sentences with adjectives and nouns. Each team turns over one adjective card and one noun card. The teams then race to construct the longest sentence possible with the adjective and noun and write it on the board. After three minutes, check each team's sentence. Teams score one point if a sentence is grammatically correct, another point for inventiveness, and one point for every word in the sentence. If a team writes a grammatically incorrect sentence, they score no points, but other teams can steal a point by successfully correcting the sentence. Teams then discard the adjective and noun, turn over two new cards, and the game continues. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL Adjectives Crossword - Vocabulary and Speaking Activity: Writing Clues, Describing, Guessing - Group and Pair Work In this productive adjectives activity, students complete a crossword by describing and guessing adjectives related to education. In two groups, students work together to invent and write down clues for the educational adjectives written on their crossword. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take turns asking their partner for a clue to one of their missing adjectives. Their partner reads out the clue for that word, and the other student tries to guess what it is. If the student guesses the adjective successfully, they write it on their crossword. If not, their partner continues to give more clues until the student is able to guess the word. Lastly, students check their spelling by comparing crosswords. show less

ESL Adjective Game - Vocabulary: Matching, Gap-fill - Group Work Here is a rewarding extreme adjectives game for upper-intermediate students. In groups of three, two students play the first game and one student acts as judge. The players take it in turns to choose a square and complete the sentence in the square using one of the extreme adjectives above the board. The student acting as judge then checks the answer sheet. If the extreme adjective is correct, the player marks the square with an 'O' or 'X' accordingly. It's then the other player's turn to choose a square. The first player to get four squares in a row wins the game. Afterwards, students play a second game, giving the student who acted as judge a chance to play. show less

ESL Adjective Game - Vocabulary: Matching - Group Work In this fun adjectives game, students play dominoes by matching adjectives with their stronger equivalents. This activity helps students learn to recognize adjectives that have a similar but stronger meaning, e.g. angry and furious, cold and freezing, etc. The first player puts down one of their dominoes on either side of the domino on the table, making sure that one of the adjectives on their domino matches with one of its stronger or weaker equivalents. The next player then puts down an adjective at either end of the domino chain and so on. The first player to get rid of all their dominoes wins the game. show less

ESL Adjectives Activity - Listening and Vocabulary: Gap-fill - Group Work - Speaking Activity: Classroom Discussion In this interesting adjectives activity, students complete a song gap-fill with adjectives and then discuss the meaning of the adjectives and song. In teams, students listen to the song "Hand in my Pocket" by Alanis Morissette and complete the song gap-fill with adjectives. When the students have listened to the song two times, they compare and discuss their answers in their teams. Students then listen to the song one more time and confirm their answers with their teammates. After that, teams take it in turns to choose a number and write the missing adjective on the board. Teams score one point for each correct adjective and one point for spelling. If a team spells an adjective incorrectly, another team can steal a point by being the first to correct the spelling. The team with the most points wins. Finally, students discuss the meaning of the adjectives and song. show less

ESL Adjectives Worksheet - Vocabulary and Writing Exercises: Writing Notes, Categorising, Gap-fill, Paragraph Writing - Speaking Activity: Information Exchange In this productive adjectives worksheet, students learn adjectives to describe atmosphere, food, service and cost, and practice using them in restaurant reviews. Students begin by writing details about the name, atmosphere, food, service and cost of a real or imaginary restaurant. Students then categorize 24 adjectives, according to which aspect of a restaurant experience they best describe. Students then move on to complete a review of their real or imaginary restaurant using the adjectives. After that, students tell a partner the details of their restaurant from the first exercise. Students note down the details of their partner's restaurant and then write a restaurant review using the adjectives to describe the atmosphere, food, service and cost. Students also say whether they would recommend the restaurant and give it a score out of five. Finally, students read their restaurant review to their partner and discuss any similarities or differences. show less