irregular verbs Archives - Classroom Games

This is a triangle game, based on Big Potatoâ€™s â€˜P for Pizzaâ€™, which is also a great game for English classes, but students need a reasonable level to play it, so this version is good to get them towards that level, and have a little fun during the long and laborious process of learning irregular verbs.

The cards are double-sided. I have designed the pages so that if you have a printer that does double-sided printing, you can just press go and print all the cards fairly easily. They should line up perfectly, then you can laminate and cut them out. Otherwise, if you print them out single-sided, you can glue the two pieces of paper back-to-back, laminate and cut out as mentioned previously.

You will have 40 cards in total. My cards have Spanish verbs on, but you can change them to the native language of your students. For example, if you are an EAL/EFL teacher in France, you might put the verbs in French for your classes. If you are teaching Arabic students, put the verbs in Arabic etc. The verb side of the cards is editable, so you can change them easily.

How to play

Lay out the cards as in the photo.

The card in the centre represents the entire pack, with one card from the top placed on each side.

The idea is that you have to say the verb in the tense stated. For example, in this illustration, players would have to say the past participle of verb 2, the past simple of verb 4 or the present simple of verb 7.

The player who says the correct verb tense any of the 3 verbs first, takes the corresponding card and another card is taken from the top of the deck to replace it.

The winner has more cards at the end of the game.

If you want to encourage students to use all tenses, you can allocate points insteadâ€¦ 1 point for present simple, 2 for past simple and 3 for past participle. Or you could add a rule that you canâ€™t use the same verb tense consecutively. This will stop student that only know present tense meanings cleaning up!

I have included a verb list that you can make available to scaffold students in the earlier stages, or give them to take home and learn the verbs, as being in a position to win might motivate them for self-study!

Downloads

Download the editable word document here : https://classroomgames.net/product/tessellation-station/

I created this game to do controlled practice of verb tenses in positive, negative and interrogative forms.

Setting up

Print the cards, laminate and cut them out. That’s it!

I have used this with groups of up to 8 players, however if you have bigger groups you may want to print off 2 copies.

You can use these cards in a variety of ways. You can play a rummy type game, where the winner has 3 of one type and 4 of another. I prefer to play with ‘happy families’ rules, as they are simple to understand, so that is what I will explain here.

Playing the game

The cards contain different verbs and pronouns. I have deliberately chosen the most common and irregular verbs. There are 6 cards for each verb. The objective of the game is to collect a set of 3 card of the same verb to gain a point. The aim of the game is to get as many ‘points’ as possible. The pronouns used on the cards are I, you, he, she, we, and they. It is possible to get 2 sets of 3 from each verb.
Students use the pronouns to form the question, so in the ‘Happy Families’ version of the game they don’t have any other use. The important element for the cards is the verb.
Shuffle the cards and deal each student 7. The rest are put in a pile, picture side down, in the centre of the table.
Students choose any other student to ask for a ‘verb’. They may only ask for a verb that they have in their hand. They do so as follows:
- In this example, the verb card they are looking for is ‘visit’ europe and the tense we are praticing is Present Simple, however you can decide to use any tense for the game.
- The student will ask using the pronoun they have on their own card, so if they have the card HE – VISIT EUROPE in their hand, the question would be : “Does he visit europe?“
- The other student would need to respond in either the positive, or negative, depending on whether they have any visit europe cards in their hand. “Yes, he visits europe” or “No, he doesn’t visit europe“.
- With Present simple, you will practise the change in 3rd person Do/Does for questions and Don’t/Doesn’t for negative, plus the 3rd person ‘s’ for positive statements. If you play using Past Simple you will practise the past simple irregular verbs in the positive and use of did + infinitive for negative and questions… etc. Choose your verb tense at the beginning for what your students need to practise.
If the other student has the verb card, they must give it. If they have 2, they must give both of them.
If a student successfully asks and receives a card/cards, they can take another turn. If not, they take a card from the centre pile and play passes to the next left.
Once a set is on the table, it cannot be stolen.
The student with the most sets at the end of the game is the winner.

The game usually lasts a full hour depending on the size of group. The more players, the better the game is. It’s good, as students have to listen to each other to work out who has got which cards.

You can use this game for any verb tense for controlled practice, as repeating the correct sentences in positive, negative and interrogative forms reinforces their understanding. It can fit in with any curriculum and planning.

If you are still unsure how the game works, I have posted a video of actual game play in my classes on TikTok and Instagram, so don’t forget to follow me for updates.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the download link for the PDF :

https://classroomgames.net/product/tenses-rummy/

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