ESL Time Expressions Bingo Card Generator
ESL Time Expressions bingo cards in seconds: 43 ready-made entries (Before lunch, Once upon a time and O'clock among them), 24 on each 5x5 card with a free center, up to 30 unique cards free. With 30 players the first line usually comes after about 13 calls, roughly 2 minutes at 10 seconds a call.
| B | I | N | G | O |
|---|---|---|---|---|
O'clock | At midnight | On the weekend | Twice a month | In a minute |
Tonight | Always | After school | Right now | In the morning |
Yet | Every day | FREE | Ten to nine | Sometimes |
In the evening | Never | Quarter past six | Usually | At night |
Once upon a time | Already | Until Friday | Last night | For an hour |
Free: up to 30 different cards per set. Pro: up to 1,000.
Free sets stop at 30 different cards. Your 30 cards are ready to print or download now.
Pro ($19 one-time) opens soon: up to 1,000 different cards per set and 2 or 4 cards on a PDF page. No payment is taken now.
Edit words (43)
Cards update as you type. Long entries shrink to fit their square; a very long single word is split over two lines with a hyphen (up to 40 characters each). The PDF uses a built-in font: emoji and non-Latin scripts print best with Print cards.
Caller sheet
Every call in a shuffled order. Tick each one as you read it out; the same share link always gives the same order.
Updated
About ESL Time Expressions bingo
ESL Time Expressions Bingo gathers the small phrases that tell us when and how often, including clock times like “Quarter to five” and “Half past three”, frequency words from “Always” to “Never”, and grammar signals such as “Already”, “Yet”, “Two days ago” and “At the moment”. It suits intermediate learners working on tenses and anyone practicing daily routines.
On a 5x5 card with a free center, ESL Time Expressions bingo shows 24 of the 43 entries, so each one lands on about 56% of the cards: in a set of 30, In the morning or In the afternoon appears on roughly 17 cards. Card 1 leaves out 19 of them, including In the afternoon, At noon and Half past three, so no single card can mark everything.
Play it like classic bingo: one person reads the 43 entries in the shuffled order of the caller sheet, everyone marks matching squares, and a full row, column or diagonal wins.
All 43 ESL Time Expressions bingo words
Every entry from After school to Yet, grouped by first letter. Edit them in the generator above: drop Once upon a time if it does not suit your group, or add your own.
- A: After school, Already, Always, At midnight, At night, At noon, At the moment
- B: Before lunch
- D: During class
- E: Every day, Every other day
- F: Five past two, For an hour
- H: Half past three
- I: In a minute, In the afternoon, In the evening, In the morning
- J: Just now
- L: Last night, Later
- N: Never
- O: O'clock, Often, On the weekend, Once a week, Once upon a time
- Q: Quarter past six, Quarter to five
- R: Rarely, Right now
- S: Sometimes, Soon, Still
- T: Ten to nine, This morning, Three times a year, Tonight, Twice a month, Two days ago
- U: Until Friday, Usually
- Y: Yet
ESL Time Expressions bingo at a glance
| Entries | 43 words and phrases |
|---|---|
| Card | 5x5 card with a free center: 24 of the 43 |
| How it is played | A caller reads the shuffled caller sheet |
| Different cards possible | about 4.97 × 10³⁵ (order matters) |
| Different selections | 800,472,431,850 sets of 24 entries |
| Shortest entry | Yet (3 characters) |
| Longest entry | Three times a year (18 characters) |
| Multi-word entries | 30 of 43, such as In the morning and In the afternoon |
| Good for | ESL lessons, classrooms, teens and adults |
| Category | Language arts & ESL (61 themes) |
How long ESL Time Expressions bingo lasts
150 shuffled call orders, played on the first 60 cards of this set. With 30 players the first line comes after a median 13 calls (about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds); the first blackout needs 39 calls (about 7 minutes).
| Players | First line | Line, 80% range | Blackout | Blackout, 80% range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 players | 15 calls | 12-20 | 40 calls | 38-41 |
| 30 players | 13 calls | 9-17 | 39 calls | 37-40 |
| 60 players | 11 calls | 9-14 | 38 calls | 37-40 |
| 1 card (exact average) | - | - | 42.2 calls | of 43 |
How to host ESL Time Expressions bingo
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Print the ESL Time Expressions cards
Give each player one card; a free set prints up to 30, no two alike. Card 1 above starts with O'clock, At midnight, On the weekend, Twice a month and In a minute.
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Print the caller sheet
All 43 entries appear on it in shuffled order, opening with For an hour, This morning, Tonight, Sometimes and Twice a month; tick each one as you read it out.
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Show a clock face for the time squares and call the digital time, such as 4:45, so players have to find “Quarter to five” themselves.
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Ask the player who marks “Two days ago” or “Right now” which tense the phrase needs, then have them say a short sentence using it.
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Line up the frequency squares on the board as they are called, from “Always” through “Usually”, “Often” and “Sometimes” to “Rarely” and “Never”.
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Call until someone shouts bingo
With 30 cards, expect the first line near call 13 (Just now in this set's order) and a blackout near call 39; check the winner's squares against your ticked list.
ESL Time Expressions bingo variations
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ESL Time Expressions variation
Routine bingo: the caller describes their own day, like “I usually wake up at seven and go to the gym after work”, and players mark every time expression they hear in the story.
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Blackout round
Card 1 needs all 24 squares, O'clock to For an hour; on average one card fills after 42.2 of the 43 calls (98% of the deck).
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Quick 4x4 round
A 4x4 card needs 16 of the 43 entries and no free space; one card is full after about 41.4 calls instead of 42.2.
First 15 calls of this ESL Time Expressions set
Seed "esl-time-expressions" gives this order, the same one the caller sheet prints. With these calls, card 25 of the first 30 completes the diagonal from the top right (For an hour, In the morning, Right now and Still) on call 15, and card 12 is the first full card on call 37.
| Call | Entry | Cards marked (of 30) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | For an hour | 20 of 30 |
| 2 | This morning | 17 of 30 |
| 3 | Tonight | 13 of 30 |
| 4 | Sometimes | 14 of 30 |
| 5 | Twice a month | 16 of 30 |
| 6 | At midnight | 15 of 30 |
| 7 | Still | 22 of 30 |
| 8 | Last night | 14 of 30 |
| 9 | Usually | 18 of 30 |
| 10 | Always | 15 of 30 |
| 11 | At noon | 15 of 30 |
| 12 | In the morning | 16 of 30 |
| 13 | Just now | 16 of 30 |
| 14 | In a minute | 19 of 30 |
| 15 | Right now | 16 of 30 |
Themes like ESL Time Expressions bingo
Ranked by category, occasion and audience; none of them repeats an entry from this list, so pasting two into the Edit words box gives a longer game.
Frequently asked questions
How many words are on the ESL Time Expressions bingo list?
43, from After school to Yet. A 5x5 card with a free center uses 24 of them, so each card leaves out 19. The shortest entry is Yet (3 characters) and the longest is Three times a year (18).
Are all ESL Time Expressions bingo cards the same?
No. Card 1 and card 2 of this set share 11 of their 24 squares, and every card is checked so none of the 30 in a free set repeats. About 4.97 × 10³⁵ different arrangements are possible from the 43 entries (800,472,431,850 different selections of 24).
How many ESL Time Expressions bingo cards per person?
Usually one. Extra cards speed the game up only a little: on this list a first line took a median 13 calls with 30 cards in play, 11 with 60 (30 players on two cards each) and 15 with just 10. Two cards suit adults who want a faster game; young children do best with one. A free set of 30 covers 15 players on two cards each.
How long does ESL Time Expressions bingo take?
An ESL Time Expressions game with 30 players usually reaches its first line after 13 calls (9-17 in 80% of simulated games), about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds. A blackout takes about 39; with 10 players the first line needs about 15.
Can I print ESL Time Expressions bingo cards for free?
Yes. All 43 entries are loaded above, so choose a card count up to 30 and press Print cards, or Download PDF to print later at one card per sheet (30 sheets for a full set). The shuffled caller sheet prints separately; nothing is uploaded or stored on a server.
How do I make my own ESL Time Expressions bingo cards?
Open Edit words in the generator above: it already holds the 43 entries, one per line. Replace O'clock with something from your own group, add inside jokes or names, and the sample card redraws at once. 5x5 cards need 24 entries or more.
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