First Conditional ESL Games, Worksheets & Activities

ESL First Conditional Activity - Grammar: Sentence Completion, Guessing - Group and Pair Work This festive first conditional activity combines the topic of Christmas and New Year superstitions with the first conditional. The worksheets contain Christmas and New Year superstitions written as first conditional sentences. Each one comes with three possible endings. The correct ending is already written on the worksheet. In two groups, students write two false endings for each first conditional sentence. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group and take turns reading each superstition and three endings to their partner, who guesses which ending is correct. The student with the most correct guesses in each pair wins. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice In this entertaining first conditional game, students create a spoken chain by turning prompts into first conditional sentences. The format is flexible and can be adapted to practice other conditional forms. To begin, you say an if-clause. The first student then repeats the if-clause and adds a result clause. The next student makes a new sentence by changing the first student's result clause into an if-clause and adding a new result clause, and so on. If a student cannot come up with a conditional sentence within a given time frame (e.g. ten seconds) or the student makes a mistake, they are out of the game. The last student left in the game wins. show less

ESL First Conditional Worksheet - Grammar, Reading and Writing Exercises: Gap-fill, Unscrambling, Identifying, Writing a Paragraph In this free first conditional worksheet, students practice giving advice using the first conditional with 'will' and other modals. Students start by completing first conditional sentences about giving advice with words from a box. Next, students put words in the correct order to make first conditional sentences about giving advice, adding punctuation and capitalization where needed. Students then read an email to an advice columnist and underline the if-clauses and put brackets around the clauses with a future meaning. Students then take on the role of the advice columnist and write a response to an email, giving advice using the first conditional. Finally, students read their reply to a partner, who says whether they agree with the advice given or not. Afterwards, there is a class feedback session to hear the students' advice and discuss who gave the best response. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Picture Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this engaging first conditional game, students practice making first conditional sentences by matching picture prompts for if-clauses to suitable result cards. The first student turns over the top 'If' card and makes the beginning of a first conditional sentence using the picture on the card. For example, if the picture shows a person staying up late, the student might say, 'If you stay up late,...' All the students then look at their result cards and try to find an appropriate match to complete the first conditional sentence. The student with a matching card then completes the sentence, e.g. '...you will feel tired the next day.' If everyone agrees the sentence is appropriate, the student who completed the sentence keeps both cards. The second student then turns over the next 'If' card, and so on. The first student to get rid of all their result cards wins the game. show less

ESL First Conditional Activity - Grammar and Writing: Sentence Completion - Group Work In this imaginative first conditional activity, students practice forming and linking first conditional sentences by collaboratively creating sentence chains. First, students write their name and an if-clause at the top of the worksheet, e.g. 'If they don't hurry up,...' Each student then passes their paper to the person on their right, who completes the second half of the first conditional sentence with a result clause, e.g. '...they will miss the bus.' The student then folds the paper so that the first if-clause cannot be seen and passes the paper to the student on their right. The next student then uses the result clause to write the if-clause for a new first conditional sentence, e.g. 'If they miss the bus,...' The student then folds the paper to hide the result clause and passes it to the next student, and so on. When the last sentence has been completed, students unfold the worksheet and give it back to the person whose name is at the top. This person corrects any mistakes they find and then reads the sentences to the group. Finally, each group chooses the best set of sentences and reads them to the class. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Grammar: Matching - Group Work This rewarding first conditional game helps learners review and reinforce first conditional sentence structures by matching clause halves to build complete sentences. The first player tries to make a first conditional sentence by placing a domino down either before or after the domino on the table. If the player can make a sentence, they read it to the group to show the match is correct. The next player then tries to put down one of their dominoes at either end of the domino chain, and so on. The first player to get rid of all their dominoes wins the game. show less

ESL First Conditional Worksheet - Grammar Exercises: Gap-fill, Sentence Completion, Writing Sentences - Speaking Activity: Asking and Answering Questions - Pair Work This insightful first conditional worksheet helps to teach students how to form and use the first conditional to talk about real future possibilities. First, students complete first conditional sentences with verbs in brackets. Students then match first conditional sentence halves together and write out the complete sentences. Next, students complete first conditional sentences with their own ideas. Afterwards, students answer first conditional questions and create one more question of their own. Finally, in pairs, students ask and answer the questions with their partner. show less

ESL First Conditional Worksheet - Grammar Exercise: Gap-fill This useful first conditional worksheet helps to introduce students to first conditional verb forms and structure. Working alone, students complete first conditional sentences in a story with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. When the students have completed the story, check the answers with the class by eliciting each sentence in turn from a student. Students score one point for each correct sentence. The student with the most points wins. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Speaking: Completing Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this fun first conditional game, students complete if-clauses or result clauses to build first conditional sentences. In pairs, students take turns choosing an if-clause square and making a first conditional sentence by adding a suitable result clause. If a student forms a grammatically correct and logical first conditional sentence, they draw their O or X symbol in the square. If not, play passes to the other student. The aim of the game is to be the first student to get five squares in a row. The first student to do this is the winner. Pairs then repeat the process with the second game board, but this time the squares contain result clauses. The students' task this time is to make a first conditional sentence by adding an appropriate if-clause to complete the sentence. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Grammar: Sentence Completion - Group Work In this creative first conditional game, students race to complete first conditional sentences and future time clauses with 'when'. Give each team an incomplete sentence strip. Teams then race to complete the first sentence, making sure the sentence is logical and grammatically correct. As soon as a team has completed the sentence, one student from the team comes up to your desk with the strip. If it's correct, you give the student the second strip, and so on. If a sentence is incorrect, the team has to rewrite it. The first team to complete all the strips wins the game. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Grammar: Sentence Completion, Guessing, Freer Practice - Pair Work In this interesting first conditional game, students complete sentence starters with their own ideas and then try to guess the endings their partner wrote, reinforcing both if-clauses and result clauses in the first conditional. In two groups, students complete the endings of first conditional sentences with their own ideas. Next, students pair up with someone from the other group. Students then play a game where they guess the endings of the first conditional sentences their partner wrote. Student B starts and has three chances to guess the ending of Student A's first sentence. If Student B guesses correctly the first time, they score three points. On the second try, two points. On the third try, one point. It's then Student A's turn to guess the second sentence, and so on. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less

ESL First Conditional Board Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming Sentences from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this free first conditional board game, students practice forming first conditional sentences from prompts. In groups, students take turns rolling the dice and moving their counters along the board. When a student lands on a square, they make a first conditional sentence using the prompt in either the if‑clause or the result clause and adjust the form as needed. For example, if a prompt reads 'feel better', the student might say, 'If I feel better, I will go out at the weekend.' If the sentence is grammatically correct and appropriate, the student stays on the square. If not, they go back two squares. If a student lands on a square marked 'If', they can make any first conditional sentence they want. The first student to reach the finish wins the game. show less

ESL First Conditional Activity - Grammar: Matching, Ordering, Writing a Dialogue, Role-Play - Pair Work In this enjoyable first conditional activity, students identify different ways of using the first conditional and practice using them in two conversations. First, students read first conditional sentences and match them with the functions of the first conditional. Next, in pairs, students put a conversation that demonstrates the functions in the correct order by reading the sentences to their partner and numbering them from 1 to 10. Afterwards, pairs create their own dialogues that contain the various functions of the first conditional and then read them to the class. show less

ESL First Conditional Game - Grammar and Speaking: Forming and Answering Questions from Prompts, Freer Practice - Group Work In this rewarding first conditional game, students practice asking first conditional questions and responding with phrases of probability. Begin by writing probability phrases on the board, e.g. I doubt if, It's unlikely, will definitely, will probably, etc. In groups, students then take turns picking up an if-clause card and asking the student on their right a first conditional question using the clause. If the student picks up a blank If... card, they create their own first conditional question. If the question is grammatically correct and logical, the student scores a point. The other student then answers the question using a phrase of probability from the board. If the answer is grammatically correct, the answering student also scores a point. The student with the most points at the end of the game wins. show less