One of my 50 TEFLtastic Classics posts, with 33 photocopiable things in common PDFs and other teaching ideas. If you like this and want more, please support TEFLtastic.
I seem to have completely forgotten about this activity for a couple of years, perhaps because it’s just so simple, but it’s recently become my favourite again. Students use the language point of the day to find things which are true for both/ all of the people in their group. It works with just about any language.
Possible uses
Tenses
– Past Simple (“We both had breakfast this morning” etc, maybe with given verbs and/ or past times)
– Present Perfect (“We’ve all been to Europe”, “We’ve eaten rice today” etc, maybe with given past participles and/ or times)
– Present Simple
– Adverbs of frequency
– Present Continuous (maybe with given present participles)
– Past Continuous (maybe with given present participles and/ or times)
– Any future tenses, including a mix of them
– Unreal past with “We both wish…”
– Tense review
– Time expressions review (past, present and/ or future)
Conditionals
– Zero conditional (“If the weather forecast predicts rain, we always take an umbrella” etc, perhaps with suggested half-sentences)
– First conditional (“We will both get angry if the trains are delayed again tonight” etc, probably with suggested half-sentences)
– Second conditional (“We’d both move to Hawaii if we won the lottery” etc)
– Third and mixed conditionals (“We would both be richer if we’d studied harder at university” etc, with probably lots of help needed coming up with ideas)
Other grammar
– Countable and uncountable nouns (“We both drink quite a lot of water” etc, perhaps with given quantifiers)
– There is/ There are (“There is a computer in both of our bedrooms” etc)
– Verb patterns (“Our parents make us do household chores”, “We are both looking forward to watching TV tonight” etc, probably with suggested verbs)
– Words with dependent prepositions (“We’re both interested in sports” etc)
– Sentences with “be” (“We are Japanese”, “We are 9” etc)
– Prepositions of position (“Both of our bedrooms are on the second floor”, “Both of us have tables next to our beds” etc)
Functional language
– Can/ Can’t
– Likes and dislikes
– “Have” or “have got” for possessions or appearance
Vocabulary
– Collocations with common verbs like “take”
– Phrasal verbs
– Personality words (“We’re both fairly ambitious”, maybe with given adverbs like “very”)
– Adverbs of manner (“We all walk quickly”, etc)
– Quantifiers
– Clothes (“We both have two coats”, “We are all wearing black socks”, etc)
– Technology vocabulary
– Work and/ or education vocabulary
– Free time activities vocabulary
– Feelings vocabulary (“We both feel sad when we see the news” etc)
– Household vocabulary
And many others must be possible. If there isn’t enough to say about themselves, you can also encourage them to compare their familes, friends, etc. If there are likely to be too many similar simple sentences, only give points for sentences no other groups of students have come up with, or at least give bonus points for that kind of originality.
Photocopiable things in common classroom activities
Time expressions with Past Simple and Present Perfect things in common – NEW
Education vocabulary things in common
Job appraisals things in common
What is… like? things in common (with verbs of sensation)
Elementary consonant clusters things in common
Accommodation vocabulary things in common
Personal information in IELTS Listening Part 1 sentence completion activities (in this e-book)
Sense verbs sentence completion games (bluff, guessing game and things in common)
IELTS Speaking Part One sentence completion games (in this bargain e-book)
School vocabulary things in common (with school vocabulary collocations, abbreviations, opposites and word formation)
Prepositions of position things in common
Be used to and get used to sentence completion games (bluffing, things in common and guessing game)
Verbs patterns sentence completion games (guessing game, bluff and things in common)
Should and should have things in common
Time expressions with Present Simple (frequency expressions and prepositions of time practised with Make Me Say Yes, Things in Common, and Answer Me games)
Likes and dislikes things in common sentence completion games
Reporting verbs sentence completition games (bluffing, guessing and things in common)
Music vocabulary things in common
Verbs patterns sentence completion games (guessing game, bluff and things in common)
Past times things in common (including Present Perfect, Past Continuous and Past Perfect and lots of time expressions)
Present and past ability sentence completion games (bluffing, things in common and guessing game)
Past and present modals of obligation and permission sentence completion games (bluffing, guessing and things in common)
Like and don’t like things in common game
Present Simple and Continuous things in common game
Business Present Perfect things in common game
Future tenses things in common game
Past, present and future things in common game
Third conditional things in common game
Dependent prepositions things in common game
Technology and quantifiers things in common game
Education and work things in common game
Technology find things in common
Article with more details on setting up the game etc
Things in common on TEFL.net
More classic super-adaptable games via the “TEFLtastic classics” tag below.
Updated 28 April 2026
TEFLtastic 
Thanks for sharing this idea, I’m starting out as a TEFL teacher and I wasn’t familiar with this game. It seems quite versatile!
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