A selection of English ESL pair matching printables

Pairs game - print the two sheets back to back to create two-sided cards. Print out two sets. I allow children to make pairs with word/word; word/animal; animal/ animal.

Matching Aninimals Game

This reading comprehension worksheet is perfect for Valentine's Day. Kids are to read the descriptions of 6 people and match them into pairs according to what they read. Pictures from freepik.com

matchmaker for valentine's day

Maybe not for beginners. Have your students find the correct meaning of the spoonerisms. Afterwards they match each spoonerisms with the corresponding picture. Can they come up with similar spoonerisms of their own?

Let them work in pairs or groups, maybe finsh with a class discussion.

Spoonerisms 3 - Play on words

Pair work, mingle, speaking and reading activity for ESL classes. Give your students a picture and a description (not matching) and let them talk to find a pair. Alternatively, might be used as reading and matching pairs.

Mythological Heroes - Find your pair

This worksheet deals with vocabulary related to building relationships, being lonely, relying on other when in trouble and the importance of having people around you. It contains exercises involving labeling pictures, matching words to their definitions, collocations, opposites and synonyms, a cross-word puzzle, fill-in-the gaps, joining sentence parts, tense/form, and minimal pair for differentiating between sounds.  

M5 L1 Relationships - Extra Practice Worksheet 

Explore a visual list of irregular verbs with engaging pictures to enhance learning. Identify and discuss the past simple and past participle forms for each verb.

Irregular Verbs List With Pictures

Cut out the following cards. Students work individually or in pairs, their task is to match the types of people with the definitions and pictures. Hope it\'s useful for your students!

Guess the person

a paper for the A1 level so as to learn the school subjects. Pupils must match the words with the pictures. pupils can work in pairs to find the right words. easy to use it as a test as well

school subjects

Materials 1 handout, cut up, for each pair of students

• Divide the class into pairs and give each pair a set of cards.

Tell them to spread the cards out on the desk face up and

match the vocabulary items to the correct pictures. Circulate

and help students out as necessary.

• Working in pairs, students then play a memory game,

pelmanism, as follows.

• Students shuffle the cards and spread them out face down.

They take turns to turn over any two cards. As they turn each

card, they say the body part. If the cards match, the student

keeps the cards and has another go. If they don’t match, he/

she turns them back over, making sure they stay in the same

place. The game continues until all the cards have been

matched. The student with the most cards wins.

• As students are playing the game, circulate and correct

pronunciation as necessary.

• If you are short of preparation time, get students to do the

task in groups of four or ask them to cut up the handouts.

Food Pelmanism

Classroom instructions match



Match each picture withits instruction. work in pairs or alone

Match each picture withits instruction. work in pairs or aloneMatch each picture withits instruction. work in pairs or alone



Classrom instructions

Some examples of homophones in English - words that sound the same but have different spellings and/or meanings. The teacher first reads out a series of homophone pairs for the students to match up, then students do a picture-guided sentence completion activity to reinforce the different meanings of the words in each pair.

Homophones - Matching Pairs

25 pairs of matching cards 

  - 13 pairs: "I can"

  - 12 pairs: "I am"

(the last page is an image for the back of the cards)



Students match the pictures to the sentences. 





GO FISH (play in groups of 3-5)



Deal 5 or 7 cards to each student. Put the remaining cards facedown in a stack in the middle of the group.



First, each student removes any pairs in their pack and makes a pile for their matching cards.



Then students decide who plays first (rock, paper, scissors).



Students will now ask each other questions to get new cards to make as many pairs as possible.



The first student chooses ANY other student to try to get a card from.



The student must use the picture or sentence on their card to make a question. 



QUESTION FORMAT: 

Can you *verb* *noun*?  OR  

Are you *adjective*?



For e.g. "I can speak Chinese" -> Can you speak Chinese?

  "I am hungry"  ->  Are you hungry?



If the student has the matching card, they answer [Yes I can / Yes I am], and gives the student the card.



The first student will take the card and add that matching pair to his pile. 



If the student does not have the matching card, they answer [No I can't / No I'm not]. 



The first student will take a new card from the stack in the middle. 



If the new card makes a pair, the student adds that matching pair to his pile. 



Then the play moves to the next student, and so on. 





The GOAL is to make as many pairs as possible (not to finish first). So if a student runs out of cards, he will take a new card from the stack in the middle to continue play. 



The key is to listen carefully to everyone's questions because that will tell you which cards they have, so you know who to ask when it's your turn. 





You can also use these cards for Memory, Karuta, or any number of activities. For example, have students change tenses, or change subjects, etc. 

Go Fish cards

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

297 Pair matching English ESL worksheets pdf & doc