Our 5 Favourite Vocabulary Games

Vocabulary makes the world go round, or so it may seem in the English as a foreign language world. Our learners need vocabulary to be able to communicate in English so we need to expose them to loads of vocabulary items. However, that’s not enough. We need to make sure they understand how the words look, sound and are used. Then, we need to make sure they remember all this information. How we do this is by using vocabulary games.

Any teacher worth their salt will have a truckload of vocabulary games up their sleeves. They will have their favourite vocabulary games which they use regularly, game ideas which they haven’t tried yet but are waiting for the right lesson, and some quick and easy no-prep vocabulary games for when they have a few extra minutes in the classroom.

Vocabulary games to add to your collection:

Vocabulary game 1: Strangers on a train

• Each student is given a set of cards, each with a word or phrase on.
• In pairs or groups the students must have conversations together as if they are sitting next to each other on a train.
• During the conversation they must use the words on their cards as naturally as possible. They can use the cards in any order, but their usage must make sense.
•  The conversation ends when a student has managed to use all of their words.

Read more: Accuracy versus Fluency: What’s the Big Deal?

Vocabulary game 2: Beginnings and endings

In groups, a student starts off by saying a word. The following student then has to say a word that starts with the last sound of the previous word.

Mary: Beach Kim: Cheese ✔️

Kim: Cheese /z/ Lee: Egg  ❌ 

If a student fails to say a word, they are out of the game and the show goes on until one remains standing … or time runs out!

Game Tip: Want to increase the difficulty level? Give the game a theme. Instruct students that the words used should only be adjectives or related to the topic of travel.

Vocabulary game 3: Kim’s game

• Prepare between 10-12 vocabulary flashcards that you can stick and unstick to the board. 
• Put all the vocab flashcards on the board and tell students to study them. 
• After a few minutes (2-3), tell students to put their heads down as you switch some cards around and remove one or two from the board. 
• At your mark, students look up and attempt to identify the missing vocabulary. 
• Continue taking away cards until there are none left to see how many words your students can remember.

Vocabulary game 4: Twenty questions

• Pick one student in the class and ask them to come up to the front.
• Give them one of the target words in secret.
• The rest of the class has 20 questions to guess the target word.
• The catch? The only answers the student can give are yes and no.
• The student who guesses the word correctly gets to go up to the front to get the new secret word.

Rule clarification: 

✔️ 1 question = Is it a person?

❌ 2 questions in 1 = Is it a person and a girl?

Read more: Vocabulary Boxes in the EFL Classroom

Vocabulary game 5: Hot potato

• Get students into groups.
• Ask them to form a circle
• One student has the ball and calls out a topic, for instance animals and throws the ball to another student.
• The one with the ball must say a target word related to the topic, like lion.
• They then throw the ball to the next student who has to call out another related word. 

Rule clarification: If a student can’t think of a target word, they are out of the game. 

So there you go: now you can have fun in the classroom and teach vocabulary at the same time! You’re welcome!

Note: This blog post was originally published in July 2018 but was updated in September 2022.

Author Bio

Written by

Kirsten Colquhoun

Kirsten Colquhoun is the Content Manager for The TEFL Academy. A graduate of Cambridge University and DELTA-qualified, she first started teaching kindergarten in Thailand in 2003. A South African, she has also taught in China, the UK, Spain, Qatar and South Africa, but these days she is a teacher trainer and freelance writer and editor. Read Kirsten Colquhoun's story →