Games for online English lessons: 14 ideas that work live

A good game has a purpose. Before choosing one, answer four questions:

• What does the student need to practice? Vocabulary, grammar, speaking or listening.
• What is their level? Too hard frustrates; too easy bores.
• How much time do you have? Most games on this list fit in 5 to 15 minutes.
• One-on-one or a group? Some games rely on competition; one-on-one, you become the opponent or the student tries to beat their own score.

Use the game in the practice stage or as a warm-up, never in place of the whole lesson. It reinforces what was presented; it does not replace the presentation. See where each stage fits in how to teach English online.

The first six have an advantage online: the student interacts on screen and you see the answer right away, without having to ask whether they understood.

1. Quiz. Multiple-choice questions on what you just covered. Online, it works best with 5 to 10 questions and a review round for the ones the student missed. Tip: open with an easy question to build confidence.

2. Matching. The student links word and picture, word and definition, or the start and end of a sentence. Great for new vocabulary and phrasal verbs. Ask them to say each pair out loud while matching, to practice pronunciation at the same time.

3. Spin the wheel. The wheel picks a topic, a question or a prompt, and the student answers out loud. It works for warm-ups, verb tense review and conversation. In a group, each spin decides who speaks; one-on-one, take a few turns yourself so the student hears a model answer.

4. Flashcards. Cards with the word on one side and a picture, translation or example on the other. Use them to review vocabulary at the start of the lesson. To go beyond memorization, ask for a sentence with each word.

5. Unjumble. The words of a sentence appear out of order and the student rebuilds it. It works on word order, questions with auxiliary verbs and adverb position, points that tend to trip up Portuguese speakers.

6. Complete the sentence. Sentences with gaps to fill with the right verb form, preposition or vocabulary from the lesson. Have the student read the full sentence aloud and explain their choice on the harder ones.

These need nothing beyond the call. The secret is to prepare the prompts in advance and correct at the end, not in the middle of the student's sentence.

7. 20 questions. One person thinks of a person, object or place; the other has up to 20 yes-or-no questions to figure it out. Excellent for practicing question forms (Is it…? Does it…? Can you…?). One-on-one, swap roles each round.

8. Two truths and a lie. The student shares three facts about themselves, and you find the lie by asking questions. Great for the simple past and for getting to know the student in the first lessons.

9. Would you rather...? Two tough options (live by the beach or in the mountains?), and the student chooses and explains why. It works on giving reasons, comparatives and linkers such as because, although and on the other hand.

10. Story chain. You build a story together, alternating sentences, starting from a picture or three random words. Good for past tenses and linkers. At the end, retell the whole story.

11. Role-play cards. Each card has a situation and a goal: checking in at a hotel, complaining about a charge, negotiating a deadline. It is the game closest to real life and the easiest to adapt to the student's niche, including business English.

Here the shared whiteboard becomes the game board. These games rely on information gaps: each person has part of what the other needs to know, and the only way to finish the task is to talk.

12. Draw and guess. One person draws a word on the whiteboard and the other guesses it in English. For beginners, use categories (animals, food, jobs). For advanced students, draw idioms.

13. Describe it without saying it. The student gets a word and has to make you guess it without saying it or using a list of banned words. It trains paraphrasing, the skill of talking around a missing word, which is essential in real conversation.

14. Spot the difference. Each of you sees a picture that is almost the same as the other's. By describing and asking, you find the differences without showing your picture. One-on-one, send the student their picture by message and keep yours off the shared screen.

• Split into pairs or trios for conversation games, and move between groups if your tool supports breakout rooms.
• Use competition to your advantage: a scoreboard on the whiteboard works well with quizzes, the wheel and 20 questions.
• Give everyone a role: who asks, who notes mistakes, who keeps time.
• Manage speaking time. In an online group, the shyest student disappears. The wheel helps share out turns.

• Explaining the rules for five minutes. Play a sample round instead of explaining.
• Correcting mid-sentence. Take notes and correct at the end, unless the mistake blocks understanding.
• Using the same game every lesson. Vary the format; the content can repeat.
• A game unrelated to the lesson. If it does not practice what you taught, it is just a pastime.
• Forgetting what comes after. What the student got wrong in the game becomes the week's practice.

You can build these games with paper, slides or separate tools. On Ludi, the first six on the list exist as ready templates: quiz, matching, spin the wheel, flashcards, unjumble and complete the sentence. You fill in the content, or ask the AI to generate it from what you teach, and review it before using. Beyond the six templates, the AI also generates games of its own, which you review the same way. Each AI-generated game uses AI credits from your plan.

In the live classroom, the game opens on the synced whiteboard and the student plays along with you. You run the wheel during the lesson; the other five can also be left for the student to practice between lessons in the app, with XP and rankings.

In the community, language teachers share activity sheets and presentations, and Ludi keeps base materials for you to copy and adapt. See everything the platform does on the for teachers page.