Word Chains

Word Chains is an easy game for adults and older children who can recognise syllables and have a reasonable vocabulary.

Age: Adults and older children

No. of players: 2 or more

Equipment: None

Time: 5 minutes+

Aim: The aim of Word Chains is to be the last player to get out.

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In case you don't remember your English grammar, syllables are the number of beats in a word. For example, "word" and "chains" each have one syllable. "Adults" (ad-ults) and "children" (chil-dren) have two syllables each, while "syllables" (syl-la-bles) has three and "reasonable" (rea-son-a-ble) has four syllables. Try clapping your hand as you say a word to find the number of beats (syllables) in a word.

1. Players sit in circle. One player chooses a word with at least two syllables to start the round.

2. The player on their left must think of a word (with at least two syllables) that starts with the final syllable of the starting word. The next player must then say another word that starts with the final syllable of the second word, and so on around the circle to continue the word chain. Any player who cannot think of a suitable word within thirty seconds is out. If a player is out, the next player on their left must continue from the last word. The game proceeds until only one player (the winner) is left.

3. For example, the first player says, "Carrot". The second player could say, "Rotten" since ROT-ten starts with the final syllable of car-ROT. The third player could then say, "Tendency" and the fourth, "Season". If the fifth player could not think of a suitable word (such as "Sonata"), they would be out. The last player to get out is the winner.

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NOTE: It is the sound of the final syllable that should be matched by the starting sound of the next word. The spelling is not important. In the example above, "Tendency" matched "Season" since they have the common sound of "see", even though the sound is spelled differently in each word.

Link from Word Chains to more Family Word Games

Click on the links below for more Family Word Games such as ...

Anti Um
I Spy
Table Story
Chinese Whispers
Snip
Great Panjandrum

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