We all know lots of word games and know that students like them. However, when it comes to games at sentence level, there does not seem to be much except the old favourite ‘jumbled sentences’. So I started thinking about how to have fun with sentences and at the same time get students to really focus on grammar. Here is what I came up with.

First, it seemed to me that guessing games with an element of competition would be fun, which is what ‘Hunt the main verb’ is all about. Think of a sentence of about eight words, and draw a numbered blank for each on the board. Now challenge the students to find the main verb in four guesses. Ask one student to call out a number, and fill this blank with the appropriate word. Assuming that the main verb has not been found, ask for the next guess. Using the words that have been revealed as a guide to the structure of the sentence, they should have a better idea of where the main verb is likely to be. Tell the class that if they find it in four guesses, they have won. If not, the teacher is the winner!

The next five games are variations of ‘jumbled sentences.’ The first, ‘Swapping words around’ uses a mixed-up sentence which students have to put in the correct order. However there is a rule! Students are only allowed to swap the places of two words each move. Give them a limited number of moves, say six for a nine-word sentence. In other words, they have to sort out a nine-word mixed-up sentence by moving two words each turn, in six turns. In each turn, the chosen words must be put in the place of the other. Make it easier by showing them the original sentence first, if you feel this is too difficult.

For ‘All those in favour’, write the jumbled sentence on the board, and numbered blanks for each word. Ask individual students to nominate words for blanks. After each suggestion, take a vote. If more than half the class agrees, write the word in. In subsequent turns students can move words already placed on the board with the consent of the class. Continue like this, so that the final correct sentence is reached by consensus.

‘Nine card trick’ has an element of randomness to bring some fun. Think of a nine word sentence, and write each on a big piece of card. Stick these face down on the board, so that the students cannot see them. Now take the first three and shuffle them, without students being able to see, until they tell you to stop. Stick the pieces of card on the board, with the words showing, in the order that they were in when the class told you to stop. Ask the class if they are happy with the order. If so, leave them on the board, if not, shuffle them again and as many times as is necessary until the students think the order is correct. Do the same with the second and third groups of three words. When all three groups are finished it should make a grammatically accurate sentence. This game can easily be played in pairs and groups.

‘Minefield’ is a jumbled sentence game for groups of four. One student is the referee and has a piece of paper with the sentence in the correct order, with one extra space included, representing the ‘mine’.The other players play with a piece of paper with numbered blanks . They take it in turns to nominate words for each blank. Each word correctly placed scores a point for that player and the word is written into the blank. However, if one player chooses the blank designated as the‘mine’, he is immediately blown out of the game!

‘Words that go together’: write the jumbled up sentence on the board. Divide the class in two teams and ask them to find pairs of words that could go together in the sentence, for example ‘to+the’ could go together because they could be found in that order, whereas ‘the+to’ is grammatically incorrect, similarly, ‘give+him’ is OK, ‘him+give’ is not. Ask each team in turn to give different pairs of words that go together. If one team cannot, or gives an incorrect pair, then let the other team guess the whole sentence. If it is right, they win, if not, the other team get a chance to guess. The rationale is that students think about the possible combinations of words before they guess the whole sentence.

‘Secret codes’ involves sentences that have been coded in some way, and which have to be decoded by students. A simple way to code is to write the sentence backwards, another is to reverse the order of each pair of words (first and second, third and fourth etc.), or put the first word in the middle of the sentence, then putting the subsequent words alternately in front and behind it, or put the first word first, second word last, third word second, fourth word second to last etc. Explain these and give the students some sentences to decode, ie they should find the pattern. Then ask them to make coded sentences for others to decode.

‘Begin in the middle’ starts from the middle of the sentence and builds towards the ends. Write the middle word of the sentence on the board, and then give the class the two words that go one either side of it. Their task is to decide which goes in front and which goes behind. If they choose correctly, write the words in their places on either side, then give them the next pair, then another, and so on until the sentence is complete. Thus, if the sentence was ‘John said he wished he had a big new red Mercedes’, start with ‘had’, the first pair would be ‘he’ and ‘a’, and the second ‘big’ and ‘wished’ and so on. To make it competitive, the class lose a life for each wrong decision. If they lose three lives, they have lost the game.

These activities may be used to reinforce various types of language, according to the content of the sentence, and could even be employed as a diagnositic test, to see if students are familar with the language. Putting words in order in a sentence is probably one of the oldest activities, yet it seems to lend itself to a great deal of fun variations, with many possibilities for competition and cooperation, in individual, team and whole class activities.