Catch And Conjugate

Setup

Students stand in a circle.

Game

1. The students throw the ball to each other, in a random order.
2. The first student says a verb, and then the one/two students that follow have to conjugate that verb.
3. When that verb has been conjugated, the next student has to say another irregular verb and the process repeats.
4. If a student makes a mistake or takes too long, they could be required to do a challenge or forfeit. Try our ESL Challenge Generator for suitable pre-made English challenges.

Target Language

The Catch And Conjugate ESL game is great way to practise the past and/or past participle forms of irregular verbs with beginner or low intermediate students. Use it as a warmer or review activity when teaching the past simple or present perfect simple.

If you want to practise the past simple only, there would only be one conjugation, e.g. eat – ate – fly – flew – go – went etc. For the present perfect, three students would conjugate each verb e.g. eat – ate – eaten – fly – flew – flown – go – went – gone.

If you’re looking for other ways to make irregular verbs practice more interesting, try Connect Four and Irregular Verbs Rap.

For a similar game to practise numbers, see Catch and Count.