Nationality Words- Syllables And Stress

By: Alex Case

Level: Beginner

Grammar Topic: Syllables

Page: /

Lesson Plan Content:

Nationality Words- Syllables And Stress
Instructions for teachers
Decide if you want to practise syllables or stress. Cut up one set of those cards per group
of two or three students. Take out the section titles. Decide which sections from below you
want to practise and then decide if you want to leave out any cards, for example countries
that your students might not have heard of.

Shuffle the cards up and give out one pack to each group. Before you try any of the actual
games, it can be a good idea to ask students to put them in columns by number of
syllables or stressed syllable in their nationality word (adjective) form. If they get stuck,
you can give out the column heading cards and/ or tell them how many cards should be in
each column. Then can then check their answers with a copy of the worksheets below.

Note that for the stress cards it doesn’t matter how many syllables the words have, so a
two-syllable word stressed on the first syllable matches a four-syllable word stressed on
the first syllable, etc, and so goes in the same column, and counts as a match for
pelmanism and snap.

Nationality word syllables and stress games
Nationality words syllables and stress pelmanism
Students spread the cards face down on the table and take turns trying to find pairs of
words which have the same number of syllables or have the same stressed syllable
(depending on which pack of cards you gave them) when converted to their nationality
word form. If the cards don’t match, they put the cards back face down in the same places
and play passes to the next person.

Nationality words syllables and stress snap
Students deal out all the cards but don’t look at the words they have been given. They
take turns turning over one card from the top of their pack and placing it on the table. If the
adjective form of the country word on that card and the previous one have the same
number of syllables or same stressed syllables (depending on which thing you are
practising), students should race to shout “Snap”. If they are right, they can take all the
cards that have been placed on the table up to that point. If they shout “Snap” when the
last two words don’t match, they don’t win the cards and have to give two cards to the
other players as a punishment.

When students have finished the pelmanism and/ or snap games, they can write the
nationality words of all the country words and mark their number of syllables and/ or
stress. They can also test each other on the words:
-

Saying a nationality word for their partner to say the number of syllables or stressed
syllable of

Saying a country word for their partner to say the nationality word of, with the right
number of syllables and stress

Humming a number of syllables or stress pattern and then helping their partner come
up with as many nationality words that match it as they can

They could then play pelmanism and/ or snap again with the other set of cards.

Cards to cut up/ Suggested answers
Note that the headings show the number of syllables or stress of the nationality word (ad-
jective) for each country word, so not necessarily for the actual country word below.

Syllables version

Two syllables

Three syllables

Four syllables

Turkey

India

USA

Ireland

Austria

Australia

Poland

Cyprus

Mongolia

Denmark

Iraq

Brazil

Belgium

Israel

Italy

Spain

Norway

Peru

Germany

Kuwait

Ukraine

Egypt

Pakistan

England

Croatia

Vietnam

Scotland

New Zealand

One syllable

Russia

Iceland

The Netherlands

Sweden

Japan

Switzerland

Finland

Portugal

The Czech Republic

Georgia

Taiwan

Thailand

China

Lebanon

Greece

Malta

Korea

France

Word stress version

First syllable

Second syllable