A selection of English ESL auction games printables

This ESL worksheet provides a general selection of sentences to 'buy'. Great fun if prepared well - and excellent for trouble-shooting common errors. I hope you will enjoy!

Grammar Auction Game

An ESL worksheet with some correct sentences and some with grammatical errors. Students have a pot of $3000 to bet with. It can be done in pairs or alone. The competition is to see who ends the activity with the most money.

An ESL grammar game where students bid to buy the correct sentences. This auction focuses on questions and was made for a pre-intermediate class with grammar structures at their level.

Grammar auction game

With this ESL/EFL printable worksheet you can play a grammar auction game in class to revise several grammar structures in an enjoyable way. Students bet on the correct sentences.

I made this ESL worksheet to revise some grammar structures at B2 level (present perfect, passive, countables/uncountables) at the beginning or at the end of school year. I use it to assess students' knowledge, especially with new classes at the beginning of school year.

Grammar Auction Game B2 Level

 Cut the printables and give to teams of students (I had 2 small teams). 


You have to introduce lots (the sentences) and offer to buy it. Students read the sentence and decide whether it is correct or not. If a team consider a sentence as a correct one, they bid for this sentence. The team that offers more money gets the sentence. The goal of the auction is to buy the biggest quantity of correct sentences.


You may download monopoly money for the game.


My students loved it!

Grammar Auction Game for Teams

A grammar auction style ESL activity encouraging students to "bet" on the correct answer using fake money. Practice WILL and BE GOING TO in a fun way. (You can download Monopoly money here:http://www.zieak.com/2008/08/19/print-your-own-monopoly-money/)

Grammar Auction Game - Will/Be Going to

This is an ESL grammar auction game, to make learning English Present Simple and Present Continuous tenses fun and competitive, ideal for younger learners and students who are beginners in English. Could be used by TEFL teachers, used for ESL/TESOL/EFL students. So, you can use this as an individual activity or a group activity to make it more competitive. Also, you can encourage a debate by asking your students why they have bought the sentences they have, plus you may even ask the groups to nominate a group leader.

Grammar Auction Game - Present Simple & Present Continuous Tenses

I made this ESL worksheet to practice the causative. This is a classic game where students bet with play money on whether sentences are grammatical or not. They can decide how much to bet in each round. Game is to multiply their original capital of 100 dollars. Great game, tried it today, it gets adults engaged just as much as teens.

Grammar Casino Featuring The Causitive

Betting game is similar to grammar auction. Students need to decide whether the sentences are correct or wrong and bet between 10 and 100 points on each sentence. This one is designed for revising pre-intermediate tenses. Instructions and notes are on page two of this ESL worksheet. Fully editable.

Betting game - Tenses revision

Divide students into groups. Tell the class that each group has £20,000 to spend. Try to buy as many correct sentences on the worksheet as possible. The group that has the most correct sentences wins. 



(You can also use tactics to persuade other teams to buy the incorrect ones, for example, bidding for incorrect sentences.)



Give each group one copy of this ESL worksheet. You can draw a table on the whiteboard and keep track of the money each group bids and how much they have left. 


Grammar Auction - Present Perfect vs Past Simple

There are correct and incorrect sentences. Students have to bid money for the sentence they consider to be correct. For this you can print monopoly money, for example. 

In the end the student with the biggest amount of correct sentences bought wins the game.

Grammar auction (Intermediate)

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

how to apologize, say sorry, forgive and express regret in English

how to ask for information and make inquiries in English

how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

how to defend yourself from criticism in English

how to deny or admit something in English

how to describe things or people in English

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how to evaluate people or progress in English

how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

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how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

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Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

19 Auction games English ESL worksheets pdf & doc