A selection of English ESL crime games printables

Cards for Mafia game. Mafia, Sheriff, Doctor, Citizen. A brilliant and funny game which allows to practise speaking, logic, detective skills. Useful in any language classroom.

Mafia Cards

This is a conversation game / roleplay for elementary to lower intermediate students. Practise simple present QUESTIONS and ANSWERS. Set of 30 CHARACTER CARDS. *** Yesterday at 10:00 pm there was a robbery in the Bank in Central Lane. The police was called immediately to investigate the crime scene and found some evidence. It had snowed yesterday there were footprints on the ground in the snow... *** Tell your students to go round the class and ask/answer questions about the personal information and take notes (What’s your name? What’s your job? Where are you from? What are your hobbies? Are you married? Do you have any children? Do you have a pet?) 6 PAGES INCLUDING TEACHER´S NOTES *** I took the pictures from Philip Martin, they are free on his website. HAVE FUN!!!

WHO IS THE BURGLAR? - 30 Conversation Cards - Roleplay - Class and Group Speaking

Practice for early learners on the verb to be- focusing on are they? Children should respond yes, they are or no, they aren\'t. A detective theme. Practice in replying to questions with short answers.



Present Simple Boardgame (Detective Theme)

This activity worksheet, vocabulary worksheet and Teacher's Notes worksheet are for the detective game Alibi, which I use for Lower Intermediate level when I'm teaching them Past Simple and Past Continuous. 

Alibi Activity

An exciting detective game for students to practice questions and some vocabulary related to crimes. 



I planned it so that two students (or more) went out the classroom and create an alibi for the night of the robbery. They know in advance the questions they are going to be asked which are in the worksheet (you can tell them there is a mole or infiltrator in the police station). 



In the meantime, the rest of the classroom are police agents, and they need to prepare the questions for the interrogation. They are going to question each suspect independently so the suspects can't be together while the interrogation is on. All the answers need to coincide, otherwise it will be discovered that they are lying. 



After the interrogation the police agents compare the answers of the suspects. If they coincide they are free, but if there is something different, they will go to "prison".



You can even make a kind of trial in the clasroom, so students can decide the best sentence for the robbers. 

Robbery at Watson Manor

group work: the groups are given a riddle they have to solve. they must read, understand the riddle then discuss the case and solve the mystery riddle. You can ask them to write the answer in English. The group gets another riddle if they found the solution. The groups that solved the most riddles has won.

mystery riddles game

Crime taboo - words like "thief", "burglary" etc.

Also, some words from Upstream Intermediate Unit 6



How to play this game:

You need to explain the word in capital letters without using the words under it. Your team needs to guess what is written on the card.

Crime taboo Upstream PreIntermediate Unit 6

This game is a murder mystery game. Students need to ask questions in order to guess who committed the crime, who was the victim, with what they were killed and where. 

Very much appreciated by my adult students!

Murder Mystery Game

Hi everyone! This is an easy cluedo game I use for my project about detective stories. I split the class into two groups: on the one hand, the suspects and, on the other hand, the detectives. The students have to find out who killed Dobby. The two culprits can give the alibi and the place they want but the others have to stick to what´s written on the card. In the end, the investigators put everything in common and this way, they know who lied to them. Hope it´s useful!:)

Harry Potter Cluedo

This is a sketch about a stole diamond. I hope you can find it useful. 

Sketch: The mystery robbery

I have pulled together a collection of resources from ISL Collective and other websites to teach Phrasal Verbs and compiled them into a resource list divided by General Resources, By Base, By Particle, & By Topic. Enjoy! 

How to Teach Phrasal Verbs: A Comprehensive Guide (Resources from ISL Collective + More) 

Students land on a square and have to either use the word in a sentence, or explain the meaning of the word - you decide which.

Crime vocab  board game

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

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

28 Crime games English ESL worksheets pdf & doc