A selection of English ESL taboo game cards printables

These are my homemade cards for the ever-popular 'Taboo' Game.  If you're unfamiliar with the game, a student takes a card and stands in front of his/her group.  S/he must explain the meaning of the word at the top of the card (in bold) without saying that word or any of the other words on the card or any related words from the same root.  His/her group must then guess the word for a point.  The group with the most points wins!  This is a great way to encourage students to circumlocute so they know what to do when they can't think of the right word.

'Taboo' Game Cards

Found some on this site, so I though I might as well make my little contribution. A classic ESL activity that always energizes the classroom. Students have to describe a word while avoiding some "taboo" words.

Taboo game cards

I have made 27 printable Taboo Game cards. Taboo words are only two, so it's easy.  This is a fun game that will be great to play in beginner level classes. Enjoy!

Taboo Game Cards

ESL/EFL taboo cards for all levels and many topics. Students of English need to avoid set words in describing a vocab item. Fully editable. Hope you will like it.

ESL taboo game cards

Taboo Card Game 2. This ESL/EFL printable worksheet contains over 100 Printable Taboo Game cards with a template. Hopy ou will enjoy the game! Have fun with it!

Taboo Card Game 2

This ESL/EDL worksheet contains over 100 Printable Taboo Game cards with template. In this classic activity students have to avoid forbidden words.




New Taboo Card Game

Taboo game with summer related vocabulary. Students must explain each concept without using the words that appear in the card. This activity is useful to foster speaking skills and reinforce vocabulary.

Taboo cards - summer

This set of flashcards is related to occupations. Students can describe the job they have on their card without using the 3 predictable words on the same card. 

Taboo Activity - Jobs

Taboo game with schoolrelated vocabulary. Students must explain each concept without using the words that appear in the card. This activity is useful to foster speaking skills and reinforce vocabulary

Taboo cards - school

Students can ask twenty questions to guess what the word on the card is. Can also be used for pictionary or taboo. Great as an icebreaker!

20 questions game

Taboo game with hobbies related vocabulary. Students must explain each concept without using the words that appear in the card. This activity is useful to foster speaking skills and reinforce vocabulary.

Taboo Cards - Hobbies

[CHARADES]

Getting students up and moving in the classroom is a great way to keep them focused. Charades is a game that most students already know, so it’s easy to use for teaching phrasal verbs.



Cut up the verbs and place them into a hat or bowl. Students can draw the phrasal verb and must act it out without using any words or sign language.



Decide whether hand-raising or calling out is better for this game, based on your classroom and students. Either way, the person who guesses the phrasal verb correctly gets to go next!



[Taboo: For When Charades Gets Old]

You can only play charades so many times! Taboo is another option that not only allows you to change it up a little bit, but also affords the student an on-the-spot opportunity to speak a bit too.



Taboo is a card game that you can easily recreate in the classroom. You can either use folded pieces of paper, as in charades, or you can make your own laminated cards to reuse time and time again.



The idea of Taboo is that you must describe a word (in this case, phrasal verb), without using the words on the card. Here’s an example:



For “grow up,” a student could say, “This means when children are getting older.” The student can keep talking and giving more clues until another student finds the right answer, but they cannot use the word “grow” or “up.”



For more advanced learners, you can make the game more challenging by adding a few extra “taboo” words to each card, such as “age,” “older” and “children” for the “grow up” card.



They’ll have to be more creative in their descriptions, and might give a clue such as, “When you are born, you are small, but you do this and become an adult.”

Phrasal Verbs Charades/Taboo

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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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)

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Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

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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

99 Taboo game cards English ESL worksheets pdf & doc