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Adjectives ESL Games, Activities and Worksheets

• Elementary ( A1-A2 )
• Pre-intermediate ( A2 )
• Intermediate ( B1 )
• Upper-intermediate ( B2 )

Adjectives Bingo

Esl adjectives game - vocabulary: matching - group work - elementary (a1-a2) - 25 minutes.

Adjective Match

Esl adjectives game - vocabulary: gap-fill, pelmanism - pair work - elementary (a1-a2) - 25 minutes.

Basic Adjectives

Esl basic adjectives worksheet - grammar and vocabulary exercises: matching, categorizing, gap-fill, unscrambling - elementary (a1-a2) - 25 minutes.

ESL Adjectives Board Game - Vocabulary: Naming Things from Prompts - Group Work - Pre-intermediate (A2) - 25 minutes/span>

Adjectives and Examples

Esl adjectives game - grammar and vocabulary: unscrambling, writing sentences from prompts - pair work - pre-intermediate (a2) - 45 minutes.

Categorize it

Esl adjectives game - vocabulary and speaking: categorizing, forming sentences from prompts - group work - pre-intermediate (a2) - 30 minutes.

Adjective Synonyms

Esl adjectives worksheet - vocabulary exercises: matching, identifying, replacing, gap-fill - intermediate (b1) - 25 minutes.

Common Adjectives Crossword

Esl adjectives activity - vocabulary: writing definitions, describing, guessing - group and pair work - intermediate (b1) - 35 minutes.

Crazy Sentences Game

Esl adjectives game - grammar and vocabulary: writing sentences from prompts - group work - intermediate (b1) - 55 minutes.

Educational Adjectives

Esl adjectives crossword - vocabulary and speaking activity: writing clues, describing, guessing - group and pair work - upper-intermediate (b2) - 30 minutes.

Extreme Adjectives Challenge

Esl adjective game - vocabulary: matching, gap-fill - group work - upper-intermediate (b2) - 20 minutes.

Extreme Adjective Dominoes

Esl adjective game - vocabulary: matching - group work - upper-intermediate (b2) - 20 minutes.

Hand in my Pocket

Esl adjectives activity - listening and vocabulary: gap-fill - group work - speaking activity: classroom discussion - upper-intermediate (b2) - 30 minutes.

Restaurant Reviews

Esl adjectives worksheet - vocabulary and writing exercises: writing notes, categorising, gap-fill, paragraph writing - speaking activity: information exchange - upper-intermediate (b2) - 40 minutes.

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Show, Don’t Tell: How to Teach Adjectives to ESL Students

When used correctly, adjectives can turn any regular old sentence into something special.

For ESL students, the number of adjectives we use can be overwhelming . Take the word “pretty,” for example. We could also say:

Beautiful, attractive, lovely, appealing, cute, gorgeous, ravishing, stunning or alluring.

Of course, each adjective comes with its own unique nuance that changes the definition slightly—which is what makes adjectives great.

So, here’s how to make English adjectives ESL-friendly!

Types of Adjectives Every ESL Student Should Be Familiar With

Positive adjectives, comparative adjectives, superlative adjectives, descriptive adjectives, 5 engaging activities for adjective practice, 1. picture race, 2. describe your best friend, 3. grow the sentence, 5. adjective bingo.

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

There are hundreds of commonly-used adjectives in the English language. To make it easier for students learning these words, try teaching adjectives in groups rather than individual, unrelated vocabulary words.

Today, we’re going to look at some of these adjective categories and how you can teach them to your students. If you want a more in depth-look or quick review of the different types of adjectives, check out “7 Types of English Adjectives to Know.”

Positive adjectives are adjectives that have an inherently positive meaning. They can be used to describe or further identify nouns and pronouns, and without positive adjectives, the English language is reduced to dry, basic sentences.

There are dozens upon dozens of positive adjectives . Words such as “grateful,” “important,” “motivated” and “pragmatic” are considered positive adjectives. It’s important for students to learn positive adjectives so that they can better express their thoughts and feelings about the world around them, people and different situations.

Note:  Make sure students are aware that positive adjectives can be turned negative when “not” precedes the adjective. For example,  The lecture was not engaging at all.  Additionally, students should be aware that some adjectives have negative connotations and definitions themselves, such as “annoyed,” “furious” and “broken.”

Another important type of everyday adjective is the comparative adjective. Think about how often in our day-to-day lives we compare two or more things. For this reason, students need to become familiar with comparative adjectives and how to use them correctly in order to properly express their thoughts and ideas.

A useful formula for your students to use when thinking about comparative adjectives is:  subject + verb + comparative adjective + than + object.

Remind your students that the suffix “-er” is added to the adjective to express the difference between the two nouns; for example,  Your house is bigger than my house. 

I like to think of superlative adjectives as related to comparative adjectives.

Your ESL students may also find it easier to understand superlative adjectives in relationship to comparative adjectives.

Similarly to comparative adjectives, superlative adjectives are used to discuss a noun in relationship to other nouns. We use superlative adjectives to show that one object is the least or most, the smallest or greatest in terms of quality.

Encourage your students to memorize the following formula:  subject + verb + the + superlative adjective + object. Remind your students that for regular superlative adjectives we add the suffix “-est” to the adjective.

For example, The bus is the easiest way to get downtown. 

Note:  You may want to take some time to review some of the irregular superlative adjectives. For example, three syllable comparative and superlative adjectives change structure. We say “more diabolical” and “most diabolical” respectively.

Likewise, there are a handful of adjectives that completely change such as “good,” which becomes “better” and “best” respectively. For a more in-depth explanation of the rules surrounding superlatives, you can show your students this post by the British Council .

Descriptive adjectives are perhaps some of the most useful adjectives for ESL students to master. These are the adjectives used to describe the size, shape and color of places, people, things and ideas.

Descriptive adjectives allow writers and speakers to modify a noun and paint a vivid picture of that noun in the mind of the reader or listener. Descriptive adjectives include adjectives such as “blue,” “old,” “tall” and “soft.” For example,  My brother has blond hair, but I have brown hair. 

Now that we’re done covering the most common adjective categories, let’s look at ways you can get students comfortable with using them in sentences. Here are some fun activities to use in your next adjective lesson. Best of all, most of these activities can be modified for any level and age group of ESL learners.

But first, did you know that  FluentU makes language learning easier and more effective? By including FluentU in your coursework, you can help students expand their vocabulary and communicate like a native English speaker. Instead of clunky dialogues, they learn English from actual conversations between native speakers.

Using familiar and popular films such as the Netflix special movie Enola Holmes to introduce your students to natively-used adjectives is a fantastic teaching strategy. In addition to this, you’ll notice a higher level of engagement and interest with native content.

In fact, why not subscribe to the FluentU English channel for regularly updated content specific to learning English? You’ll be able to keep up with the latest trends in native content and English learning. As Enola Holmes would say, “it’s wonderful.”

Useful for Teaching: Descriptive Adjectives

Picture Race is a great game for getting your students to use adjectives. Before class, print out several pictures you want to use in the activity. If you need help finding pictures to fit the theme of your lessons, check out Pixabay . Make sure you add variety to your  photographs or paintings , choosing a mixture of people, places and things.

In class, divide your students into small teams. Each team will need a sheet of paper and a pen. At the front of the room, hold up or display one of the images you’ve prepared. The teams race against each other to come up with as many adjectives as they can to describe the image. Give them two minutes.

At the end of the two-minute mark, have each team read out their list of adjectives to the class. Teams get points for every adjective they came up with that the other teams don’t have on their lists. For example, if Team One and Team Two both have the adjective “green” on their list, both teams cross it off. However, if Team One has the adjective “bright” and the other teams do not, Team One gets a point.

Once the points are tallied, display the second picture. Continue with as many rounds as you choose. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.

This game is great because some students may have a larger vocabulary and other students can learn from them.

Useful for Teaching:  Positive Adjectives, Comparative Adjectives, Descriptive Adjectives

This is primarily a writing activity. Students should work individually to describe their best friend.

On the board, write down “appearance,” “personality” and “compared to me.” Then, instruct the students to start by describing their best friend’s physical appearance.

• What do they look like?
• What color is their hair?
• Are they tall or short?

Then, students should write a few sentences describing their friend’s personality. They’ll need to exercise their knowledge of positive adjectives to accurately describe their friend. Finally, ask them to compare themselves to their best friend using comparative adjectives.

Save time at the end of the lesson for students to read or share their descriptions with the class. Make any corrections that are needed so that the whole class can learn from the mistakes or errors.

Tip:  For a variation on this activity and to get your students to practice different sets of adjectives, ask them to describe their favorite season and type of weather or to describe their favorite city.

Useful for Teaching: Positive Adjectives, Comparative Adjectives, Superlative Adjectives, Descriptive Adjectives

This activity is ideal for practicing all types of adjectives, while also giving students the chance to practice the correct positioning of adjectives in various sentences.

Before class, prepare a worksheet listing various sentences with the adjectives removed.

For example:  The ____ tomatoes taste _____ than the ____ peppers. 

The students will need to fill in the adjectives. If your class needs a little extra help, try providing a word bank with various adjectives for the students to choose from. In the previous example, the sentence should eventually read:  The red tomatoes taste better than the green peppers.  In some cases, there may be more than one right answer and that’s okay! Aim to provide 12-15 sentences and make sure you create sentences that require different types of adjectives.

After you pass out the worksheet in class , have students work individually or in small groups to complete the exercises. Don’t forget to save time at the end of class for students to share their favorite sentences, and make corrections as necessary.

This is a fun, high energy game for the whole class to enjoy!

Start by asking for a volunteer to stand in front of the class. Then, instruct the volunteer to think of an object—it can be a person, place or thing, but should generally be something most students would be able to guess.

Once the student has an image in mind, he or she should begin to describe the object using as many adjectives as they can to describe the thing they are thinking of without actually saying what the object is. The rest of the class must try to guess what the object is based on the description.

You can either have students shout out answers or ask them to raise their hands with their guesses and call on them in turn. The student that correctly guesses the object goes next.

Tip:  A more structured variation of this game is to prepare cards with different objects on them before class. In this way, you, the teacher, can control what objects and items are described in class. In class, the first student selects a card and must describe that object without saying what the object is.

Prepare several bingo cards with different images of objects and items. Then, in class, give a bingo card to each student or group. After all the cards have been handed out, stand at the front of the class and call out different adjectives and details about the individual objects.

Give students a chance to see if they have an item that matches your description. For example, you may say “red apple.” On some bingo boards maybe you included a “red apple” and on others you included a “green apple.”

Students will need to listen carefully to correctly fill in their bingo boards. If a student gets a diagonal line, vertical line, or horizontal line, they should call out “BINGO!” Make sure you check their board to ensure they successfully achieved “BINGO!”

Tip:  For your more advanced students or older students, you could let them take turns being the person who calls out the descriptions.

Adjectives are the spices that add flavor to the English language. Everyone loves listening to a  story if it’s filled with great descriptions. And with these activities that make adjectives ESL-friendly, your students will begin to master adjectives and be able to embellish their English in no time !

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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 Teach ESL Kids New Words with Chara... Please enable JavaScript Teach ESL Kids New Words with Charades (Kindergarten, Young Learners) | For ESL Students #shorts

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

#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:

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#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

Last update on 2022-10-15 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

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 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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5 Fun Activities To Teach Comparative And Superlative Adjectives

If you’re teaching English comparative and superlative adjectives and are looking for some fun and exciting games, you’re in the right place. Comparative adjectives are used to compare 2 things and superlative adjectives are used to compare 3 or more things. Once students have learned comparative and superlative adjectives, they can compare two or more things and greatly expand their vocabulary. In this post, we list our top five game ideas to teach comparative and superlative adjectives.

Related: Comparative And Superlative Questions / List Of Comparative And Superlative Adjectives

5 Fun Games To Teach Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

1: classroom olympics.

Top of our list of games to teach comparative and superlative adjectives is ‘Classroom Olympics’. In this activity, students will compete against each other in some fun classroom games and then make comparative and superlative sentences. The classroom Olympic activities you play will depend on whether you are practicing comparatives or superlatives, and the adjective you choose. Below are some examples of how you can play this game:

Comparative Adjective: Faster

Write 10-20 words on the board from the lesson you are currently teaching. Then invite two students to come to the front of the class and give each student a board eraser. Ask the two students to stand with their backs to the board and tell them that when you call out one of the words, they should turn around and try to erase the word quickly.

The first student to erase the word is the winner. Then, ask the rest of the class ‘Who is faster?’, and all students should answer using a comparative sentence (e.g. ‘Sarah is faster than James.’)

Superlative Adjective: Fastest

The above game can also be played to practice superlatives by repeating the above game with the rest of the students until you find the student who is the fastest in the whole class. Classroom Olympics can be used with many different adjectives and you can come up with many fun games to practice comparatives and superlatives. If you’re stuck for ideas, here are some:

Higher / Highest: Who can jump the highest.

Low / Lowest: Limbo

Strong / Strongest: Arm wrestle

Lucky / Luckiest: Rock, scissor, paper/roll a dice.

Louder / Loudest: Who can shout the loudest.

2: Comparative And Superlative Quizzes

Another great way to teach comparatives and superlatives is with a fun quiz. You can easily make your own questions, but if you’re stuck for time, here are three ready-made quizzes for you. Students must use their general knowledge to answer the questions.

To play, simply play the video in class. Then pause the video when you see the pause sign to give students time to answer. Then students can write down their answers using comparative and superlative sentences. To practice speaking, ask students to tell you their answers one by one after each question. These quizzes can be played in pairs or in small teams. For more ready-to-use English quizzes, check out all our Easy English quizzes .

3: Comparatives Chain Game

This simple game to practice comparatives is a great warm-up activity to introduce or review comparative adjectives. All you need for this game is a timer. To begin, brainstorm some comparative adjectives and write them on the board. Then choose a topic that has many nouns, such as ‘animals’. Then write a comparative sentence on the board comparing two animals. For example, ‘Elephants are bigger than cats.’.

Now the game can begin. The aim of the game is to make as many ‘comparative chains’ as possible. To make a chain, students must make a comparative sentence starting with the last noun of the previous sentence .

So, for example, if the first sentence is ‘Elephants are bigger than cats .’, then the next sentence must start with ‘ Cats ‘ (e.g. ‘Cat’s are smarter than pigs .’), and the sentence must start with ‘ Pigs ‘ (e.g. ‘Pigs are fatter than dogs.’), and so on. Give the first team 1 or 2 minutes to make as many comparative chains as possible, and then change the topic (e.g. food) for the next team.

4: My Family

This activity is a great way to review family vocabulary while teaching comparatives and superlatives. This game is especially effective when teaching comparatives and superlatives to kids. The best way to play this activity is to ask each student to bring in some pictures of their family members. But, if this is not possible, students can draw their families instead.

To begin, elicit some adjectives from your students that can describe people. For example, old, young, tall, short, funny, etc. Then ask your students to think about their family members and to think about who is the tallest, oldest, youngest, funniest, etc. Students will then work in pairs or small groups and will try to guess the names of their partners’ family members based on their friend’s descriptions of them.

To begin, one student will show the pictures (or drawings) of their family members to the other students in their group. Then, the student will make a superlative sentence describing one of their family members. For example, ‘John is the shortest person in my family.’. The other students must then look at the pictures and guess which picture (or drawing) is of John. Repeat until the students have guessed all the family members, and then it’s another student’s turn.

5: Comparative And Superlative Flashcard Games

Last on our list of fun classroom games to teach comparative and superlative adjectives is a  flashcard game . Flashcards  are a wonderful way to present vocabulary to students and can be used in a variety of different ways.

A great way to use flashcards when teaching comparatives/superlatives is to play the sentences game. To play, first, prepare some noun flashcards. These can be on any topic, for example, food, animals, school subjects, countries, etc. You can download and print flashcards on many different topics for FREE from our  Flashcards Page .

Then, divide the class into two teams and ask one student from each team to come to the front. After the count of 3, show the two students a flashcard and then they must make up a comparative sentence and write it on the board as quickly as possible. For example, if the flashcard is a picture of an elephant, the students could right ‘An elephant is bigger than a fly.’ / ‘An Elephant is heavier than the teacher.’, etc.

The first student to write a correct sentence is the winner and gets to keep that flashcard for his/her team. At the end, the team with the most flashcards is the winner.

Thanks for reading. I hope you found some good game ideas to teach comparatives and superlative adjectives. Before you go, don’t forget to check out our FREE ESL lesson materials, including  flashcards ,  board games ,  lesson plans , and  PowerPoint Games . 

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Describing Things / Adjectives Games for ESL Kids

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Once all the objects are out of the bag (and scattered around the room) you can do one of the following: 1. ask each student in turn to retrieve one object ("Freddy, can you give me the long pencil, please"). 2. Shout out each object and let all the students race to get them. 3. Play "Touch" ("Everybody, touch the small apple").

Click here to download our Describing People Lesson Plan .

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