Make Them Say It

Students try to get their partner to say a specific secret word or phrase by asking carefully designed questions.

Procedure

1. Put students in pairs (A and B). Give each a slip of paper with a word or phrase, kept secret from the partner. Keep reserve slips in a central pile.
2. A asks B questions carefully designed to force B to say the word/phrase on A's slip. B does not know what the target is.
3. Example: if the slip says "In September," A might ask When does the school year start?
4. Once B says the exact words on A's slip, they switch roles.
5. As pairs finish, they swap slips for new ones from the central pile.

Elementary slips: No, I can't. Switzerland. In the evening. Tomorrow. Sometimes. Maybe.

Higher-level slips: When I was a child. It depends. If I have time. I wish I could. I don't think so. No, I wouldn't. Yes, I would have. I'm sorry, I'd rather not answer that!

Tips

• Do a full-class rehearsal first: one student faces away from the board, write a word on the board, and the class tries to elicit it through questions.
• Discuss "near misses" so students learn their questions need to be finely tuned (e.g., "Are you married?" won't produce "Single" — better: "What do you call a person who's not married?").
• Easier variation: accept slightly different answers (e.g., "When I was young" for "When I was a child").
• Script slips to practise particular tenses or functional expressions.
• Great as a warm-up or for early finishers.