adjectives activities esl

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Adjectives Listening/Speaking/Vocabulary Exercises

The way to teach adjectives is to have a variety of  exercises. These can include:

• Positive/negative adjective sorting
• Picture matching: matching adjectives to emotions or situations
• Personality surveys
• Audio listening/speaking exercises help  give a better feel of the context

1  Common adjectives for describing people  (with audio and answers)

Students try to match the vocabulary to the pictures. Then they listen to the audio and match the items to the pictures and check that they matched the correct adjectives to the pictures.

Elementary adjectives for describing people (PDF)

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2 Adjectives for the city (with audio and  answers)

       This is an  ESL listening/speaking/vocabulary exercise  for   adjectives for describing the city.   This uses a similar  format to the exercise above.  

Adjectives for the city (PDF)

3 Adjectives for life (with audio and  answers)

  This is another listening  activity for adjectives worksheet  to help students talk about everyday situations and  behavior through adjectives.      

Adjectives for life (PDF)

4  Adjective icebreaker

      This is  an excellent elementary  icebreaker for a lesson about adjectives.

Adjective icebreaker (PDF)

Related Resources:

3 Comparative Adjective Exercises and Worksheets

4 Exercises for Aspects of Nouns

Making Adverbs Beautiful

Ed/ing Adjectives

5 Basic adjectives for things  (with answers)

 This is an ESL  exercise to help familiarize students with basic adjectives. Students match the adjectives to the pictures and write short sentences. This worksheet helps introduce, reinforce or review students’ knowledge of adjectives. And it helps improve their skills.

Adjectives for things (PDF)

6 More common adjectives for people (with answers)

        This is an ESL  exercise to help familiarize students with basic adjectives for describing people. Students match the adjectives to the pictures and write short sentences. Pictures engage the attention of students and they also encourage  students to use critical thinking skills.

Adjectives for people (PDF)

 Parts of Speech Exercises

7 Picture-Based Present Continuous Worksheets (PDF)

8 Preposition Exercises for Location, Time and Movement (PDF)

5 Future Tense Vocabulary and Speaking Exercises

5  Useful Passive Voice Practice worksheets

6  Present Perfect Language and Speaking Worksheets

11  Incredibly Useful Past Tense Simple Teaching Activities (PDF)

3 Great Exercises for the 2nd Conditional (PDF)

 7 Personality adjectives dictation

      This is similar to Exercise 3  above but includes many exercises for teaching personality adjectives.

Personality adjectives (PDF)

 8  Personality Adjective Survey 

  This is an ESL   speaking and writing lesson  for  learning  adjectives. Each student chooses an adjective and writes five survey questions using his/her adjective. They then walk around the class asking their questions and noting down their answers. Finally, they write a short report from their survey  question answers. This is a fun communicative exercise that allows students to mix freely.

Personality Adjective Survey (PDF)

9 Adjective Gallery teaching idea

    This is a fun,  creative and communicative ESL  speaking activity for   adjectives. Each student gets one or more slips of paper, chooses an adjective, draws some kind of picture or cartoon about an  adjective (of  their choice or assigned by the teacher) and then writes a multiple choice question about the picture. They can write the correct answer on the back of the slip of paper. When all the students are finished the students can walk around quizzing other students or the slips of paper can be handed around. 

Click here for the Adjective Gallery  PDF file 

10 Everyday adjectives

    This is an ESL exercise   for  learning and  using common, everyday adjectives . Students match the the adjectives to the pictures is an enjoyable and fun way to learn adjectives. . First, the students match the words to the pictures. Then they try to short conversations using the words. 

Everyday adjectives (PDF)

11 Adjectives for a businessman (with answers)

    This is an  ESL exercise for practicing the use of adjectives that  might be useful in business English.  Students match the adjectives to the pictures and if possible, try to make a sentence explaining why the adjective matches the picture. 

Adjectives for a businessman (PDF)

2 Replies to “Adjectives lessons and exercises for all levels”

These are fantastic,thanks so much!

Thanks for the comment. I am now adding audio and listening exercises so they will actually be much more fantastic!!!

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How To Teach Adjectives To ESL Students | A Step By Step Guide

Once ESL students learn the correct use of adjectives in English, they can express themselves in more interesting ways and make richer and more meaningful English sentences.

Grasping the concept of adjectives can be challenging for ESL students, especially young learners. Not only that, there are several different types of adjectives that ESL students should master.

In this guide, we will provide step-by-step instructions on how to teach adjectives to ESL students in such a way as to help them improve their spoken and written language skills. We’ll also provide links to useful resources for teaching adjectives to kids and beginner English language learners. Let’s get started.

How To Teach Adjectives to ESL Students

Step 1: elicit some adjectives from students.

Even if students don’t yet know what an adjective is exactly, chances are they know some words that are adjectives. So, the first step to teaching students about adjectives is to activate students’ existing knowledge and elicit some adjectives from them. A great way to do this is to look around the classroom and ask students about different things they can see. For example:

• “Look at this marker pen. Is it red or blue ?”
• “What color is that book?”
• “Is the tree outside big or small ?”
• “Is Chris tall or short ?”
• “Does Jenny have short hair or long hair?”

After asking students these questions, write their answers on the board in the form of a sentence. For example, “ The marker pen is red .”, “ Chris is tall. “, etc.

Step 2: Define Adjectives

Now that you have activated students’ existing knowledge about adjectives, it’s time to explain what adjectives are. When defining what an adjective is, try and use an easy-to-understand definition. Here’s an easy definition of adjectives you can use:

An adjective is a word used to modify the meaning of a noun or pronoun.

After providing this definition, you might need to remind students what a noun/pronoun is and provide some examples of what you mean by ‘modify the meaning of a noun/pronoun.’

For example, write on the board the sentence “Chris bought a t-shirt from a department store.” Then, add some adjectives to modify the nouns in the sentence. For example, “Chris bought a red t-shirt from a big department store.”

After showing students a few more examples, they should begin to understand what an adjective is and how they are used to modify nouns/pronouns.

Step 3: Explain Different Types of Adjectives

The next step in teaching adjectives is to explain the different types of adjectives there are in English. Of course, you may wish to teach this over several lessons, especially if you are teaching kids or beginner learners.

Here are the four different types of adjectives your ESL students should learn:

Comparative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are used in sentences to compare the differences between 2 nouns/pronouns. For example, “Chris’ new car is faster than yours.”

Check out our list of comparative adjectives to see regular and irregular comparative adjectives and learn about their conjugation rules.

Descriptive Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives are used to modify a noun/pronoun and describe it or describe a quality about it. For example, “Kelly is so beautiful ! She is tall and has long , straight hair.”

Check out this list of adjectives to describe people for more examples of descriptive adjectives.

Positive Adjectives

As the name suggests, positive adjectives are used to describe a noun in a good, positive light. For example, “Craig is very kind and generous .”

Superlative Adjectives

Superlative adjectives are used when describing nouns in terms of their upper or lower limits. For example, “Kevin is the smartest student in the class. He has the highest I.Q.”

You can find lots more Superlative Examples Here .

Step 3: Describe Pictures

When teaching adjectives, describing pictures is a fantastic activity to encourage students to practice making their own sentences. This activity works both in the classroom and while teaching online .

Prepare several interesting pictures of various scenes. For example, a picture of people talking in a restaurant, and picture of a beautiful garden, etc. Next, ask students to write down five sentences describing the picture. After that, encourage students to share their descriptions with the class and elicit from students the adjectives that are used in each sentence. Write these on the board so that students can learn the adjectives that their classmates used.

Step 5: Practice Identifying Adjectives

Next, it’s time to give students a more challenging activity. Show students an authentic text, such as a magazine, newspaper, book, etc. Next, choose a passage from the text and ask students to identify as many adjectives as they can. To help students identify the adjectives, you can suggest that they think about whether a word modifies a noun in the passage. This simple activity really helps to focus students as they try to figure out whether or not a word is an adjective.

Once students have identified many adjectives, have them swap out the adjectives in the text with their own adjectives. This can lead to some really funny paragraphs and is a great way to emphasize to students the power that adjectives have to change the meaning of a sentence.

Step 6: Practice With Worksheets And Exercises

Once students understand what adjectives are and how they are used, they still may not be able to use them confidently and fluently. And so, they need lots and lots of practice over many lessons. Worksheets and practice exercises are particularly useful to help students master using adjectives.

You can find many such resources on the internet, but here are some to get you started. Check out our free adjectives worksheets page and our interactive adjectives quiz for inspiration.

Resources To Teach Adjectives

Thanks for reading. I hope you found this guide on how to teach adjectives to ESL students useful. Before you go, check out these related resources for teaching adjectives:

Adjective Flashcards Comparative Adjectives Lesson Plan Superlative Adjectives Lesson Plan Comparative And Superlative Adjective Games

ESL Speaking

Games + Activities to Try Out Today!

in Activities for Adults · Activities for Kids

ESL Adjective Games, Activities, Worksheets & Lesson Plans

If you’re looking for the best ESL adjectives games and activities, then you’re certainly in the right place. We’re going to give you the rundown on more than 20 top ESL adjective games and activities, along with worksheets, lesson plans and more.

An adjective is simply a word that describes or modifies a noun. Some of the most common ones include things like colors or words like big/small, hot/cold, hard/soft, etc. If you want to teach them the awesome way, then you’ll need to keep on reading to find out my top picks for ESL adjective games that can be used to describe nouns .

You can find adjectives in every single ESL textbook, from beginner to advanced. Instead of focusing on them exclusively, most textbooks sprinkle them in throughout. There are some fun ESL adjective games that you can try out if you want to spice things up a little bit in your classes.

Here are some of my favourite fun ESL activities and games for adjectives. Or, have a look at these Parts of Speech ESL Activities.

Adjective Games and Activities for ESL

ESL Adjective Activities and Games

Let’s get into the adjective activities ESL that you need for your classes.

#1 ESL Adjective Game: Flashcard Sentences

If you use a textbooks to teach kids, chances are that there are flashcards that go along with the book. Get your hands on these if possible because they are a very valuable teaching resource.

The way it works is that students have to take a look at the picture and then make a full sentence using that word. If correct, they get to keep the card. If incorrect, it goes to the bottom of the pile.

In this case, choose the cards with adjectives. Or, use the nouns but require that students include an adjective in the sentence too.

More details here: Using Flashcards in your ESL Classroom .

#2: Dialogue Substitution

There is often a reading to introduce a unit. In this case, you may find one that’s filled with adjectives and wish to make better use of it than just simply having students read it together with a partner or by themselves.

To do dialogue substitution, leave some of the words blank (adjectives or nouns in this case) and then have a word bank that students can use to fill in the blanks. It turns this kind of mindless activity into something far more useful because students also have to focus on meaning, and not just simply reading.

Check it out here: Dialogue Substitution .

• Amazon Kindle Edition
• Bolen, Jackie (Author)
• English (Publication Language)
• 87 Pages - 10/24/2019 (Publication Date)

#3: Picture Prompt Warmer

A nice way to introduce a topic or set of vocabulary is to find a related picture. In this case, you’d want to ensure that there are a lot of possible adjectives that students can see. Then, elicit some words that students know.

Instead of just the noun, encourage students to add an adjective. For example:

dog—>a brown dog

building—>a tall building

Find out more about this popular ESL adjective activity here: Picture Prompt Warm-Up.

#4 ESL Adjectives Game: Taboo

Chances are that you’ve played taboo at a party of some kind. Basically, you have to get your team to say a specific word but you can’t use other, related words. It’s a fun party game!

In this case, you’d want to use adjectives. It can take a bit of time to set this up so it’s usually only worth it if you can use it for multiple classes. But, the effort is worth it because it’s a fun way to spend an English class!

More information here: ESL Taboo .

You could also consider using this one for comparatives and superlatives. It’s a fun way to get students to try to guess the correct adjective. More ideas here: ESL Comparative and Superlative Games and Activities .

#5 ESL Adjective Games: Disappearing Sentence

If you have just a minute or two before the end of the class, consider using this filler that also makes quite a good review activity.

Write a sentence on the board related to what you’ve been teaching. For example:

“The large, brown cat and the tiny black dog like to take long walks by the river.”

Then, erase 2-3 words at a time and students still have to say the sentence. By the end, there will be no words left but students will have memorized the sentence.

Learn more here: Disappearing Sentence ESL Game .

#6: Dictation Practice

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#7: Incorporate Adjectives into your Daily Routine

It’s ideal to have a routine to start your class off, no matter what age you teach. This is especially important with little kids as they know what to expect and it just gets things going more smoothly.

You might want to start your day off with something like the following:

• Good morning, how are you?
• What day of the week is it?
• How’s the weather today ?
• Look out the window. What do you see (include adjectives here)
• Review specific adjectives (big/tall/short, etc.)

More information about doing this in your classes here: Daily Routine for ESL Classes .

#8 ESL Adjectives Games: Dictogloss

This is a classic ESL activity because it focuses on a wide variety of skills at the same time. The way it works is that you find a reading passage (or write your own). In this case, it’d be heavy on the adjectives.

Then, you read it out at a normal pace and students have to work in pairs to recreate what they just heard. Ideally, they’d understand about 50% of it. Read the story again and students add more information. Finally, they compare their version to yours at the end.

Find out the details here: Dictogloss ESL Activity .

#9: ESL Clothing Quiz

Try out this simple clothes quiz with your students. It’s filled with a variety of adjectives!

#10 ESL Adjective Activity: Draw a Picture

This is one of my favourite activities for units directly related to adjectives to describe people. The way it works is that students sit back to back. One student has a picture (of a person) and has to describe to their partner what they see. This person has to draw it.

It’s a simple activity that students love! Check it out here:

ESL Adjective Activity for People .

#11 Interactive Adjective Games: Flip-Chart Vocabulary Review Game

If you’re looking for a quick, but fun ESL review game that’s ideal for adjectives, then consider Flip-Chart. The way it works is that one students sits at the front of the class and you stand behind them with a flip-chart with words on it.

Their team has to give them hints about the word and the person sitting in the chair has to guess what it is. The team with the most points at the end of the allotted time is the winner.

Check it out here: Vocab Review Game.

#12: Got to Hand it to You

If you’re looking for an ideal way to review adjectives, then you’ll want to check out this activity. It’s kind of like ESL Jeopardy, but it’s far more student-centred. Find out more details here: Got to Hand it to You Review Game .

#13: Comparative Adjective Quiz

#14: Role-Plays

If you teach English to beginners, then you’ll certainly want to consider using this role-play activity. The way it works is that you give students the start of a conversation, but with some blanks in it. Of course, you’ll want to make the conversation so that it lends itself to using lots of adjectives!

Then in pairs, students have to work together with a partner to fill in the blanks and complete the conversation. After that, they can perform their short conversation in front of the class.

If you want to give this beginner-level ESL activity a try, find out more about it: ESL Role-Plays .

#15: Board Games

I love to play board games in real life which is perhaps why I like to use them in my English classes too. It’s easy to design them for just about any topic, grammar point or vocabulary set. Plus, the students love to play them!

In this case, you might fill the board with questions that would require students to use adjectives in their answers. Maybe they could describe things around the classroom. It’s up to you but I’ve definitely use board games for teaching adjectives quite successfully in the past. Learn more here: ESL Board Game Activity .

#16: Typhoon

Try out this fun quiz game that can be used to review just about anything, including adjectives! Find out everything you need to know here:

#17: Running Dictation

This is one of my favourite ESL games for a number of reasons. It’s:

• Student-centred to the max
• Fun and students like it
• Can be used for just about any topic
• Gets students out of their seats and moving around the class
• Uses a variety of skills in a single activity.

The way it works is that you can post bits of a conversation around the class. Of course, use lots of adjectives in it! Then, students have to work together to dictate the conversation. Once that’s done, they can order the sentences they have to make a coherent conversation. Try it out today: Running Dictation Game .

#18: Telephone

I’m sure you played this game when you were a kid. The way it works is that you have to pass a sentence down the line and then find out what you have at the end. Comparing it to the original usually yields some hilarious results! You can use it for any sort of vocabulary. Learn more about it: ESL Telephone Game .

#19: I’m an Alien

If you want to elicit a bunch of adjectives, there’s almost no better way than with, “ I’m an Alien .” Find out more about it here:

#20: What are you Cooking?

This is a fun, food-related activity to try out with your students. The way it works is that students have to design a 3-course meal based on an ingredient list from another team.

Then, they have to convince the class that they have the most delicious meal. Hence, the heavy adjective use! Check out the details for yourself: What are you Cooking?

• 278 Pages - 07/12/2020 (Publication Date)

#21: Whiteboard Race for Teaching Adjectives

This is one of the best, simple adjective activities to  try out with your students. Make up a number of teams, depending on the amount of whiteboard space you have. Then, 1 person from each comes to the board and takes a marker. Say a word and the first person to write down an adjective gets a point for their team.

For example, if you say person, students could write kind, funny, smart, etc. If you say a house, student could write big, cozy or comfortable.

I write down the winning adjective on the side of the board and students can’t use it again which makes this game more interesting. Keep playing until everyone has had a chance.

More ideas here: ESL Whiteboard Activities and Games .

#22: A-Z Alphabet Game

Unless you teach absolute beginners, it’s likely that your students already know a fair few adjectives. This makes a nice warmer activity to help students activate their prior knowledge before jumping into the new stuff:

#23: Hot Potato Adjectives ESL Activity

I’m sure you’ve played the hot potato game before. The way it works is that you pass around a potato (or another small object) and if you drop it when passing, you’re out. Or, if the music stops and you’re holding it, you’re also out. It’s easy to use this is an ESL game too.

The person holding the object has to do something when the music stops. In this case, it’s use some adjectives to describe something. Beginners may just to have to use word to describe an object (sweater-soft) while more advanced learners can use more (classroom-sterile, hot, boring).

Fun ESL Adjective Games and Activities

#24: Choose your Own Adventure Group Writing Activity

Adventure stories are the perfect opportunity to practice using lots of interesting adjectives. And this group writing activity is certainly a good one. It’s interactive, engaging and students from children to teens to adults usually love doing it.

It does take a while to set up and organize but it’s usually worth it when you see the results! Find out how to do it here: Choose your Own Adventure Writing Activity.

#25: Postcards

Any postcard is made way better with adjectives! Have a look at this simple writing activity:

#26: Fives Senses Writing or Speaking Activity

Check out this writing or speaking activity that can be done alone or in groups. Choose a common object like an apple and bring it into class. Then, students have to think of some words that can describe that object. It’s fun to do this over the course of a semester a few different times with different objects.

Find out more about it: Five Senses Speaking/Writing Activity.

#27: ESL Fruits and Vegetables Quiz

Check out this fun online quiz that uses adjectives to give hints about a secret fruit or vegetable. Students can pick out the adjective in each hint.

What is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes or modifies other words. They can help make writing and speaking more specific and interesting. Both beginners and more advanced English speakers can use a variety of them. Some examples of adjectives are words like big, green, and pointy.

What are the Types of Adjectives?

There are some different types of adjectives to be aware of. They include the following:

• Descriptive (colors, sizes, etc.)
• Possessive (my, your, etc.)
• Demonstrative (this, that, etc.)
• Interrogative (which, what)
• Indefinite (some, many, a few, etc.)

Different kinds of English adjectives

Tips for Teaching Adjectives

Are you looking for some tips and tricks teaching adjectives ESL? Do you want to know how to teach adjectives? Then look no further than this quick list!

• Remember to keep things student-centred. This means that you should be talking less, and your students talking more!
• Review is key. Students to have to see and use things at much as possible for them to actually remember. Sure, they can study at home, but chances are they won’t, so help them out in class!
• Less is more. It’s better for students to know a few adjectives really well and be able to use them correctly, rather than a list of 100+ adjectives and only kind of know them. Keep this in mind when planning your lessons.
• Show, don’t tell. One of the ways to make language memorable is to show students instead of just telling. If you’re explaining brilliant, show them a brilliant blue, and then a dull one. They’ll never forget it.
• Know the different types of adjectives (descriptive, comparative, superlative, positive).
• Don’t forget pronunciation. This is a key part of the lesson when introducing new vocabulary.

Do you have any tips or ideas for how to teach adjectives? Leave a comment below and let us know! We’ll add your idea to this list.

• 68 Pages - 11/07/2020 (Publication Date)

How do you Make Teaching Adjectives More Fun?

The key to make teaching adjectives more fun is to use a variety of interesting and engaging activities and games such as board games, surveys, videos and more. Then, also consider some worksheets, controlled practice, freer practice, along with homework to reinforce key concepts with adjectives.

What about Online Practice for Adjectives?

If you’re looking for some sources for online practice for adjectives for your students, then these games and activities probably aren’t what you’re looking for. But, not to worry!

Here are some of my favourite resources for online adjective games that you’ll want to recommend to your students:

ESL Games Plus

English Club

What about ESL Adjective Worksheets?

If you’re looking for something to do in class besides these adjective games ESL, then consider using some of these worksheets. They’re an ideal way to give your students some practice with the forms and specifics of how to use adjectives in the English language.

ISL Collective

You could also print off some of these and give them to your students for homework. Either way, they’ll get some extra adjective practice which basically equals some ESL teaching awesome!

What about an ESL Adjective List?

As you may have noticed, we don’t actually list the most common adjectives here. Instead, we prefer to point people to the following resources, depending on the level and needs of your students:

List of Adjectives by Category ( emotions , personality, etc.)

100 Common Adjectives List

Top 500 Adjectives List

The thing to keep in mind with these resources is that less is often more. I’d rather my students know 50 of the most common adjectives down cold and be able to use them in conversation rather than they know 500 of them only vaguely and not well enough to use them.

ESL adjectives games

What are the Most Common English Adjectives?

However, if you want a list, then here are the most common 25 adjectives that all English learners should know:

Do you want to get more organized? Check out our recommendations here: Tote Bags for Teachers .

Did you Like these ESL Adjective Activities and Games?

• 148 Pages - 03/09/2016 (Publication Date)

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There are enough ESL activities to get you through an entire semester or course in style. And the best part is that the book is well-organized into various sections: reading, writing, speaking, listening, grammar, review, etc. so that you should be able to find what you’re looking for in a minute or two. Yes, it really is that easy to have better English lessons.

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Does it sound like exactly what you need to get some excitement back into your ESL classes? Then head over to Amazon to check it out for yourself. But, only if you want to get yourself a serious dose of ESL teaching awesome in your life:

Have your Say about ESL Adjective Games

What are your thoughts about this list of activities, online practice and worksheets to help your students learn more about English adjectives? Do you have any favourite ESL adjective games? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think. We’d love to hear from you.

Also be sure to give this article a share on Facebook, Pinterest, or Twitter. It’ll help other busy English teachers, like yourself find this useful teaching resource.

ESL Adjectives

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About Jackie

Jackie Bolen has been teaching English for more than 15 years to students in South Korea and Canada. She's taught all ages, levels and kinds of TEFL classes. She holds an MA degree, along with the Celta and Delta English teaching certifications.

Jackie is the author of more than 100 books for English teachers and English learners, including 101 ESL Activities for Teenagers and Adults and 1001 English Expressions and Phrases . She loves to share her ESL games, activities, teaching tips, and more with other teachers throughout the world.

You can find her on social media at: YouTube Facebook TikTok Pinterest Instagram

I honestly struggle with how to make these kind of dry grammar and vocabulary units in my textbook more interesting but ran across your site. Lots of nice tips and ideas!

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• Adjectives Synonyms
• Adjectives Opposites 1
• Adjectives Opposites 2
• Adverbs of Frequency Hangman
• Adjectives Opposites 3
• Adjectives Opposites 4
• Adjectives Synonyms/Antonyms
• Adjectives, Prefixes, Suffixes, Extremes

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10 Fun Activities For Adjectives Of Personality

Adjectives of personality can be incredibly difficult to teach and learn. For one thing, not many of them translate well, with an apparently similar word from another language turning out to be positive where the English word is negative, or to have a much wider or more restricted meaning that the translation would suggest. There are also so many personality words, meaning that any kind of freer practice turns up more and more words even if you’ve already given them a huge list.

Having said all that, there are some great activities for adjectives of personality that students love and learn a lot from. Given a really good activity that students can get involved in, they soon forget the difficulties and even become fascinated by the differences between languages. Good activities will also allow them to use the words over and over again and to think about them in more depth until they really are clear about the meaning and connotations. 15 such activities are listed below.

1. Ranking One of the best ways of getting students to look at the same language many times so that they understand and remember it a bit better each time is to ask them to rank the personality adjectives in some way. Possibilities include putting the adjectives in order of importance for a lover, spouse, employee, boss, teacher or politician. They can then compare their ideas with another group.

2. Roleplays Give students a roleplay card telling them what their personality is, and ask them to act that way until their partner guesses what adjective they were given. Situations in which they can do so include shopping, blind dates, job interviews and press/TV interviews.

3. Describe the people One student uses personality adjectives to describe someone until their partners guess who they are talking about. This could be a family member, someone else that they know, someone famous, or their impressions of someone in a page of portraits that they have been given. It also works for animals, especially in a mixed-nationality class where the similarities and differences in the impressions of the personalities of foxes, elephants etc can be very interesting.

4. Questionnaires Give students a questionnaire that is supposed to measure one or more aspect of their personality, but without its title. After they have answered the questions, they can work together to guess what they were being tested on (e.g. how generous they are), and to compare their answers with their partner(s). They can then write similar questionnaires for other personality words for other groups to answer the questions on and then guess which character traits are being tested. Creative and high level groups might also be able to improvise such questions without writing them down.

5. Your personality Ask students to guess each other’s personality. The simplest way is for them to make statements such as “I think you are quite patient” for their partner to respond to with expressions like “Are you pulling my leg?” or “You could say that.” You could also ask them to guess facts that support that judgement, e.g. “I think that you are quite adventurous. I guess that you have been hiking on your own a few times.”

6. Guess the personality word The simplest way of doing a guessing game with character adjectives is to ask someone to define one of the words or give examples until their partner guesses what it is, e.g. “A fox is said to be this way. It is like ‘clever’, but in a negative way” for “cunning”. You could also limit them to giving examples of actions that illustrate particular personality words, e.g. “He refused to change his mind about which pasta restaurant we went to” for “stubborn”. They could also make statements about who the word that they are describing is and isn’t particularly important for, e.g. “This is the worst thing for a nursery nurse but quite a good thing for a boxer” for “aggressive”.

7. Personality Yuppies Yuppies is a game in one of the Communication Games books in which they take turns boasting about how “My house is more expensive than your car” and “My servant is more intelligent than your house”. Something similar can be done with personality words by asking them to compare boyfriends, bosses, teachers etc with sentences, e.g: “My boyfriend is more generous than your boyfriend. Yesterday he bought me one diamond in the morning and another in the afternoon” and “Okay, that’s pretty impressive. My boyfriend is more intelligent than yours, though. He speaks 100 languages.”

8. Personality and gender Ask one student to describe the character of a famous person or someone that they know, and the other person to guess as soon as they are certain of the gender of that person. They are only allowed one guess, and lose five points if they are wrong.

9. Personality and gender discussion Students could also discuss if certain personality words (e.g. “stubborn” or “vague”) are connected more to one gender than the other, or are more desirable or unacceptable in one gender than in the other.

10. Find the personality word While they are watching a video, students shout out every time that they think they see a personality word illustrated by what is on the screen and the class discuss whether their statement (e.g. “Mr Bean is cunning. He is fooling the little kid”) is really represented by the video. These sentences can be from a list of personality words or just whatever the students can think of.

Positive Personality Adjectives List Negative Personality Adjectives List

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