A selection of English ESL abstract printables

This worksheets deals with English abstract nouns. It consists of five different exercises. The answer key is provided on page two. Hope you'll find this ws useful.

Abstract Nouns

A list of how to form abstract nouns from adjectives, verbs and common nouns. Helped my students in their writing a lot

Sts have to underline the abstract nouns in a quote by Franz Kafka, then they have to write some sentences using them.B&W.

Abstract Nouns.

Concrete nouns are things that you can experience through your five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch e.g. flowers, pizza, window.

Abstract nouns are things you cannot see, smell, taste, hear, or touch e.g. shopping, appetite, luck. Students look at the nouns below and write them in the correct column. This worksheet was created by www.primaryleap.co.uk





Concrete and Abstract Nouns

Common abstract nouns that we use in our daily lives

LIST OF ABSTRACT NOUNS

There are two types of noun, Proper and Abstract noun. In this task students should understand abstract noun and its definition. Abstract noun can help students particularly non-native students when they need specific term.

INTERMEDIATE LEVEL ABSTRACT NOUN

With this file you will get PROMPTCARDS with questions to provoke lively discussions NOT about trivia but about values, beliefs, life in general, love, generosity, death etc. Let the students find out more about themselves. Some questions might confront ethical dilemmas in a concrete rather than an abstract form. There are no correct or incorrect answers to these questions. For students to probe, discuss and explain their ideas about life using upper-intermediate and advanced language skills. Example questions: “If you new there would be a nuclear war in one week, what would you do?” “Given the ability to project yourself into the past but not return, would you do so? Where would you go and what would you try to accomplish if you knew you might change the course of history?” This activity is requested by my students once a semester! I hope you will enjoy it as much as they do! *** USE PAGE 3 AS BACK ***

ADVANCED Conversation Promptcards about VALUES, BELIEFS, ETHICS

There are a whole host of benefits to intentionally promoting clear and shared classroom rules and expectations. A survey of the research demonstrates some of the obvious benefits, such as:

Students know what to expect and they understand the learning tasks better (Wentzel, 2006).

Things in the class run more smoothly with less confusion (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994).

Students have a clearer sense of what it takes to perform (Hines, Cruickshank & Kennedy, 1985).

Some other benefits of having clear classroom rules and expectations that are less obvious, are:

Expectations that are clear and shared are essential to help foster the cause-and-effect relationship between actions and consequences. Without clarity and a shared understanding, consequences feel arbitrary. The result is that they will have less benefit and be experienced as more punitive and result in more resentment and less behavior change.

The absence of clear expectations will create practical problems and an environment of uneasiness in the class that will lead to confusion, frustration and hostility when expectations clash.

An intentional approach to promoting expectations helps them become more concrete and meaningful. When expectations exist as words (or privately held assumptions), they remain abstractions. They must be “operationalized” to be effective.

Expectations help the class interpret events and actions as examples or non-examples of “things that are making us better”.

Are the rules in your classroom defined clearly?

Classroom Rules

Simple Future has two different forms in English: "will" and "be going to." Although the two forms can sometimes be used interchangeably, they often express two very different meanings. These different meanings might seem too abstract at first, but with time and practice, the differences will become clear. Both "will" and "be going to" refer to a specific time in the future.

Future Forms

This can be a quick ESL warmup activity in 2x3 minutes or you can devote more time to it if it fits your lesson aims, since it is an activity that sparks students' imagination and is guaranteed to keep them engaged.



Recommended for highschool students and adults, as the activity presupposes ability for abstract thought and working with symbols. 



How to do this warmer activity:



1.	Put students in pairs, then tell them about the activity: "You’re going to act out psychologist and client. The client is supposed to tell the the psychologist about his/her dream. You will interpret the dream together. You will take turns in being the psychologist and the client."



2.	The psychologists need to close their eyes. You then show the clients one of the three “dream scenes”. 



3.	Next, they should describe the dream to their partners by adding some more events to the dream scene depicted in the photo. 



4.	Finally, they should interpret the dream and the symbols in it together. 





Follow-up:



1. You can check the meaning of the various symbols in the dream scenes and discuss it with students:

http://dreammoods.com

Warmer: Interpreting dreams #2

The students have to sort the words out into the correct categories. I have included abstract and proper nouns. You could do this as dictionary work as they may not know some of the words. 

Noun, verb or adjective?

This ESL worksheet includes different exercises about painters, art and styles of them, like abstract, portraits and realistic. Students are going to learn about their styles, where were they from? And finally they can make a picture or a painting with their imagination, funny!

ART 1st Part.- KNOWLEDGE / Painters /  FUN Exercises

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)

For personal or classroom use only. Uploading on other internet sharing platforms or any commercial use NOT PERMITTED. Share Alike.

Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike License

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives License

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

how to emphasize important things in English

how to encourage or discourage people in English

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

how to express interest in something in English

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

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

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

56 Abstract English ESL worksheets pdf & doc