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What Are the Different Types of Grammar Games?

G. Wiesen
G. Wiesen

While there are a number of different types of grammar games that can be played to help improve a person’s grammar skills, most games are either physical or digital. Physical games usually include games like “hangman” or games that use flashcards or boards to allow players to progress through the game by using various aspects of grammar, such as spelling. Digital grammar games, on the other hand, typically utilize computers or similar technology and are often video games that reward players for using language to solve problems in different ways.

Grammar games typically refer to those games that require players to use different aspects of grammar to either progress through the game or ultimately win it. Different aspects of grammar that might be required in such games include spelling, word choice, punctuation, and understanding different parts of speech. Grammar games might be designed to be played merely for fun, or they may be more like competitive games in which a player progresses through the game and ultimately wins due to his or her understanding of grammatical concepts.

Some grammar video games are designed to be fun for the whole family.
Some grammar video games are designed to be fun for the whole family.

Physical or traditional grammar games can include many different types of games, though they all tend to use cards, boards, or other game pieces. A game like “hangman,” for example, is a traditional grammar game won through recognition of different words and proper spelling. Flashcards can be used as a game to help people learning a language identify different objects or parts of speech through recognizing the word associated with an image or hint on one side of a flashcard.

There are also grammar games played with special sets of game pieces, such as lettered tiles or dice. These games are often won by those who can recognize different words that can be spelled using certain letters, or by those who are able to builds words from individual letters. Some grammar games can also provide players with part of a sentence that has blanks in certain spaces, usually indicating the part of speech that goes there, allowing players to otherwise fill in the blanks as they see fit to create strange and humorous sentences.

Digital grammar games are typically video games that can be played on a computer. These are often similar to traditional games, but might incorporate certain aspects of digital technology in them. For example, a digital game might allow players to battle monsters by spelling words that “damage” the monster based on the length of the word. Some games even provide players with problems to solve, and allow them to solve the problems by providing them with objects that match words typed by the player.

Discussion Comments

pastanaga

@browncoat - I'm usually pretty disappointed by online grammar games, unless they are something that allows you to play with friends. I've found them to be the equivalent of flash cards most of the time.

I've always thought that there should be a better way of teaching grammar to kids and even adults that is actually fun and makes the lessons stick, but I've never found an example of it.

browncoat

@pleonasm - Having fun always helps with learning too, because people remember jokes and funny lines quite easily. It's a shame that we never played any grammar games in high school when I was there because my grammar is still pretty poor.

Although I'm getting better at coming up with little tricks to remember things like the difference between effect and affect. There are some really good resources online if you are interested in them, for both French and English.

pleonasm
I'll tell you a game that really helped me with my French when I was learning it at school - Pictionary. It might not seem like the most intuitively helpful game for learning a language but it can actually be quite a fun grammar game if you set it up well.

You've got to make sure that people are going to be drawing objects that their fellow students will be able to guess in french and you've got to try and throw a few phrases in there as well.

The thing is, you can get away with drawings that match the words phonetically as well and it makes it easier to remember them afterwards.

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    • Some grammar video games are designed to be fun for the whole family.
      By: Kurhan
      Some grammar video games are designed to be fun for the whole family.