Category Archives: Grammar and Structures

Students can do this activity in groups of 2, 3 or 4. Each player gets their own card.  1 die is needed and bingo chips (or anything that will cover the die on the card). The object of the game is to be the first to cover all 12 dice on the card.

Player 1 rolls the die and chooses one of the two dice with that number on their card and says the word or verb form in the target language.   If correct, they cover the die.  Play continues with the next student.  Once two of the same number are covered on a player’s card play will continue to the next player if the number is rolled again.
The first player to cover all the numbers on their card wins the round.  Students then exchange their card with another player and play the round again.

This can be easily adapted to various proficiency level by having students use one word, a chunked phrase or even full, created sentences.

Download lots of versions of these activities:

• Spanish Vocabulary
• Spanish Verb Forms
• French  Vocabulary
• French Verb Forms

Getting students to actively use language in meaningful ways doesn’t have to be complicated. Sometimes, all it takes is a deck of playing cards and a little structure. In this post, I’m sharing one of my favorite sets of no-prep activities that consistently get students speaking  while having fun and building confidence along the way.

In Cœurs, Carreaux, Trèfles et Piques / Corazones, Diamantes, Tréboles y Picas, students pull one red and one black card to create a subject-verb pair or subject-picture pair. They write complete sentences, flipping new cards each round. It’s quick, simple, and gets students thinking beyond isolated words.

In Le Chemin / El Camino, students lay the whole deck of cards out as a winding path. They roll dice to move their game piece and create sentences based on where they land. I love how this brings energy and movement to the classroom, and students stay motivated to keep communicating.

Match Nul / Partido Empatado is all about quick thinking. Students flip cards, and the highest card wins the chance to create a complete sentence using a subject and verb or picture from the game board. It’s fast-paced and perfect for encouraging spontaneous language production.

Each game also comes with support pages — adverbs, conjunctions, negatives, questions — to help students add complexity to their sentences. I’ve found this really empowers students to push beyond basic structures and communicate more fully.

These activities are no-prep, highly engaging, and a fantastic way to build language confidence in a fun, low-stress way.

You can download French and Spanish of these activities here:

French:

• ER Verbs
• Regular Verbs
• Être, Aller, Faire, Avoir
• Irregular Verbs
• Passé Composé with Avoir
• Passé Composé with Être
• Numbers 1-100
• Colors
• Time
• Days, Months, Date
• Seasons and Weather
• Class Objects
• Food and Drinks
• Fruit
• Clothing
• Rooms and Furniture

Spanish:

• AR Verbs
• Regular Verbs
• Stem-Change Verbs
• Irregular Verbs
• Preterite, Regular Verbs
• Numbers 1-100
• Time
• Days, Months, Date
• Seasons and Weather
• Colors
• Food and Drinks
• Fruit
• Class Objects
• Rooms and Furniture
• Clothing

In this game players are dealt 5 cards to begin and place a card face up on the discard pile that is either the same verb (any form) or the same form (Je/Yo/Io/Ich, Tu/Tú/Tu/Du, etc.-any verb) as the top card on the discard pile. When the card is placed down, the player must say a complete sentence in the target language using the verb form.

To make it a little more interesting I also put special cards that a player can choose to play:

• “arrêt” changes the verb
• “sauter” skips the next player
• “inverser” changes the direction of play
• “+2” requires the next player to pick up 2 cards.

The first player to use all of his/her cards wins the game. A very interactive way for small groups of students to review verb forms and practice speaking in complete sentences.

You can download full French and Spanish versions of this card game below:

• French Regular Verbs
• French ER Verbs
• French IR Verbs
• French RE Verbs
• French Irregular Verbs
• French Accent and Spelling Change Verbs
• Spanish Regular Verbs
• Spanish AR Verbs
• Spanish ER Verbs
• Spanish IR Verbs
• Spanish Irregular Verbs
• Spanish Stem-Changing Verbs

Once students have seen (in writing) or heard verb forms in context the next step is to begin producing language.  This activity is an effective follow-up and extension to comprehensible input activities that helps students to see that they can recognize forms and patterns that they have seen in context.

If you are moving away from direct instruction of verb conjugations, try this out with students. If they have had sufficient contextualized exposure to the verb forms and meanings you will  see that students can choose the accurate form based on what “sounds right.”

When this happens we know that they are progressing in their proficiency and moving toward accurate language output. This activity also supports students as they level up to the Intermediate Low Proficiency Level where they are creating sentences on their own.

These French and Spanish activities are done in Powerpoint and the animation is all set up.  All you have to do is click.

There are two possible ways to use these Powerpoints:

• Students write sentences based on the subject and infinitive on each slide when an infinitive and a subject pronoun are revealed. Students see 4 possible verb forms. An additional click reveals the correct form for students to verify their form along with question words so that students can write a complete sentence with the verb form.

• Another option is for two students to go to the screen (where powerpoint is projected) and each one has a fly swatter. The activity begins just as the first possibility, but in this version the first student to slap the correct verb form says a complete sentence with the accurate verb form once the form is revealed and the question word appears.