Speaking Activities › Taboo Talk
Describe it without saying the word — a class vocabulary game
One word on the board, and five words you are not allowed to use. They are always the five you would have reached for first — describe a BICYCLE without wheels, ride, pedal, bike or cycle — and the class shouts TABOO the moment one slips out. Taking away the easy words is the entire lesson.
What is the describing game?
It is a vocabulary game in which a child describes a word to the class without using it, or any of a short list of banned words printed underneath. The banned list is what makes it work: without it a child says “it’s a bike with wheels” and sits down. With it, they have to find another route to the same meaning, which is precisely the skill a child needs when they do not yet know a word.
How do you run it, step by step?
Show the card on the board with the word and its five banned words. One child describes; everyone else guesses and listens for a slip. When someone gets it, or the describer says a banned word, move on. Keep it fast — six or seven words is a starter. If you want it calmer, take the shouting out and have the class put a hand up instead.
Why does banning the obvious words matter?
Because it forces a circumlocution — a way round. A child who cannot say wheels has to say “the two round things”, and a child who cannot say ride has to explain what you do with your feet. That is exactly what a fluent speaker does when a word will not come, and it is the single most useful strategy you can teach a child who is learning English or who has a narrow vocabulary.
From the classroom
The shouting is the problem and also the appeal, so decide which you want before you start. TABOO shouted by thirty children is genuinely joyful and completely unusable if the class next door is doing a test — a raised hand works just as well and keeps the describer talking. The thing that lifts this from a filler to a proper vocabulary lesson is the second sheet: getting children to write their own cards. Choosing which five words to ban is much harder than describing, because you have to predict what someone else would say, and children get it wrong in a revealing way at first — they ban five words nobody would use and leave the obvious one available. Testing their card on a partner and watching it fail teaches them more about how words work than the game itself does. And with a child new to English, let them describe in whatever order they can manage and do not enforce the five; the workaround is the point, not the rule.
Which year groups is it for?
It works from Year 1 to Year 9 (US grades 1–8). Younger children do best with concrete objects and three banned words rather than five. Older children can handle abstract nouns and enjoy the difficulty. It is also one of the most useful activities in the set for children learning English, because the whole game rewards finding another way to say something.
Can I make cards for my own topic?
Yes, and it is the strongest way to use it. Type a topic — the Romans, the water cycle, minibeasts — and you get words from it with five banned words each, pitched at your class’s age. That turns a vocabulary game into revision of the unit you are teaching. You can also pick a ready-made set, or write the cards yourself as WORD — banned, banned, banned.
Can I print it?
Yes — two sheets. The taboo cards are cut-outs carrying the word and its banned list, numbered to match the board, so groups can play at tables. The make your own sheet is the one worth the lesson time: children choose a word and decide which five words to ban, then test the card on a partner.
| Use it for | How | How long |
|---|---|---|
| A vocabulary starter | Six words, whole class, hands up to guess | 10 minutes |
| Topic revision | Generate cards from the unit you are teaching | 20 minutes |
| A proper vocabulary lesson | Print the make-your-own sheet, write and test cards | 40 minutes |
| Group work at tables | Print the cards, fours, one describer at a time | 20 minutes |
Do I need an account?
No. The setup screen and the worked example are both open, so you can see what you would be running before anyone asks you for anything. Starting the activity uses a free trial token, and a Sage Pro subscription lifts the limit.
Free to try, and no sign-up to look around.
More like this
For a version built for children learning English, there is the ESL describing game. For more talk under pressure, try Question Tennis or Just a Minute. All seventeen are in Speaking Activities.
Written by a practising primary school teacher, who built Sage Teachers to use in their own classroom. Every activity here is free to try with no sign-up.