Guesscards: the idiom guessing game
A team speaking game. One player makes their team guess the idiom on their card without saying the obvious words, so everyone has to paraphrase, explain and listen. Ready to print in about a minute, free, no account needed.
Make your free Guesscards kit →
How to play
Goal: Get your team to guess as many idioms as possible. The team with the most cards wins.
- Split the class into teams and shuffle the cards face down.
- One player draws a card and makes their team guess the idiom — in one minute.
- Three-word rule: the clue-giver may only say three words, and none of them may appear on the card.
- Forbidden-words rule (harder): describe it freely, but never say the words in the red box.
- A correct guess scores a point; saying a forbidden word passes the turn.
Two levels
- Easy: the clue-giver may say only three words, none of them printed on the card.
- Hard: they can talk freely but must avoid the forbidden words on the card.
Ideas for your class
- Bonus point if the team also gives the meaning in their own words.
- Beginners: allow miming or drawing the literal picture instead of words.
What you get
To print: Playing cards with the idiom, its literal translation, its meaning and an example sentence, plus up to 40 copies, one set per group. A4 or US Letter, in color or ink-saving black and white.
On a projector: play from one screen, or share it on a video call.
Online: students join from their own phones or laptops with a nickname, and you follow their progress live.
Example idioms
Every card shows the idiom, a word-for-word translation and the real meaning. A few French ones:
| French idiom | Literally | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Les carottes sont cuites | “The carrots are cooked” | It's too late, nothing can be done. |
| Poser un lapin | “To put down a rabbit” | To stand someone up on a date. |
| Avoir le cafard | “To have the cockroach” | To feel depressed or down. |
| Tomber dans les pommes | “To fall in the apples” | To faint; to pass out. |
For ESL classes, English idioms work the same way: spill the beans (to reveal a secret), under the weather (unwell; ill).
Which languages?
48 in all. There are enough idioms for every game in English (1,600+, great for ESL), French (900), Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Polish and Japanese, plus smaller sets in 37 more. You pick the language, a theme, or the exact idioms you want.
Questions
- Is it free?
- Yes, all of it. No account needed; an optional email sign-in keeps your sets on every device.
- Will a rude idiom end up in my kit?
- Not by chance: idioms tagged crude are never picked at random. You can still choose one by hand if you want it.
- What about student data?
- In online games students type a nickname only. Nothing is saved.
- Printing tips?
- Print at 100% scale with headers and footers turned off.
More idiom games
Idiom Bingo · Idiom matching game · All classroom games · Tell us how it went