Unjumble: Word Order Without Drilling Rules
What the game is
The words of a sentence are shuffled. Students put them in order. A word in its correct place is marked straight away, and pressing Check shows which words are still in the wrong place. One game can hold many sentences, one per line, with 2–20 words each.
What it teaches
Word order looks simple in a rule and breaks all the time in speech. That's especially true in a foreign language: questions with do/does, the position of frequency adverbs, negatives, adjective order, the German verb at the end of the clause. Unjumble makes students build the structure themselves instead of recognising it ready-made.
In first-language lessons it helps with syntax: compound subjects, clauses, complex sentences. With young learners it simply teaches them to build a sentence from words.
Choosing sentences
- One structure per game. Ten Present Simple questions, not a bit of everything. That way students notice the pattern.
- 4–10 words. Shorter and there's nothing to build. Longer and it's hard on a small screen.
- One correct order only. "Yesterday I went to the cinema" and "I went to the cinema yesterday" are both right, but the game accepts only one. Avoid sentences like that or rephrase them.
- Punctuation goes with the last word. Write "cinema?", not a separate "?".
Running it
Whole class. Put a sentence on the projector. Students first build it in their notebooks or on mini whiteboards, then one student comes up and builds it on screen. Talk about any differences: "Why does always come before the verb?"
In pairs. One student builds the sentence, and the other explains why it goes that way. If they can't explain it, they work it out together.
At home. Send a link with "Assign to class". The by-question results show which sentences were most often built wrong, and those are the structures to revisit.
Turning the game into grammar
After the game, ask students to state the rule themselves: "Look at all ten questions. What always comes first? Where is the subject?" A rule students worked out themselves sticks better than one copied from the board.
The next step is to write their own: everyone writes one sentence following the same pattern, and a partner checks it. If you have a shared screen, the best ones can go into a new game.
Common mistakes
- Mixing structures. If one game has questions, negatives and the passive, the pattern disappears.
- More than one correct order. A student builds a correct sentence and the game says no, and that undermines trust in the game. Check every sentence.
- Sentences too long for young learners. Twelve words on a phone is torture.
Same content, different format
A list of sentences also plays in Speaking cards and Spin the wheel, for example as prompts for spoken answers. Complete the sentence practises the same grammar through gaps.
Ready-made games are in the game library.