About the flashcards

ESL Flashcards provides language teaching flashcards for educators, parents and caregivers.  All picture cards and word cards come in three easy-to-print sizes for full class activities, language learning games, group work, pair work, tutoring one-on-one, or even self-study.

Download Format

All materials are available only in PDF format as instant downloads. We do not sell printed materials.

How to Download

The download button is not clickable until you select options. The button will appear greyed out.

First, select size and any other options, such as case (uppercase, lowercase, etc).

After make all your selections, you will be able to click “Download“. The button will appear blue.

Missing the Download Button?

The download link does not appear when ad blocking software is running. Please add www.eslflashcards.com to your ad blocker’s whitelist in order to be able to download.

Ad Blocker Off, Still Can’t Download?

After turning off any ad blocking software for our website, you can try these steps:

  • Refresh the page once or twice
  • Check a different flashcard set page to see if the download link appears; if not, check your ad blocker settings again
  • Clear the browser cache (NOTE: you will lose saved passwords, favourite sites, etc.)
  • Use a different web browser (one without ad blockers).

Why We Have Ads Anyway

Maybe you’re wondering why you must view ads to see content. Running a website costs money. Revenue from advertisements helps pay for the web hosting, domain name, software and server costs, and helps compensate for the time it takes to create flashcard sets, manage content, and maintain the site. If we didn’t earn money to cover our costs and make a bit of a living, we’d have to close the website altogether.

Flashcard Sizes

Our flashcard sets are available for download in three sizes:

  • Large: 1 full-page card per sheet
  • Medium: 2 half-page cards per sheet
  • Small: 9 cards per sheet (playing card size)

Large cards work best for full class activities and wall posters. Choose medium cards for group work and language learning games, or to save some ink and paper. Small card sets are best for pair work, small group activities, teaching one-on-one, or self-study.

Flashcard Variations

Most of the flashcard sets now have these variations:

  • Images only: picture cards with no text
  • Images with labels: picture cards with text
  • Words only: text on separate cards to match the image cards
  • Words with IPA: the word with International Phonetic Alphabet transcription
  • Checklist: a vocabulary list showing all of the image cards, their matching word labels and IPA transcription

Word Cards

The word cards that match picture flashcards are intended to be printed on the reverse side of the image cards. For this reason, the word cards for the small size flashcard sets appear in the reverse order to their 3 x 3 grid counterparts in the image sets. As well, the word card borders are grey and the font is not very large so that the words will not be too visible through the paper when cards are printed double-sided.

IPA Transcription

The phonemic transcription on the words cards with IPA is American pronunciation. For the IPA, I used the English text to phonemic transcription converter at: https://tophonetics.com/. British pronunciation is also available at that site.

Regional Spellings and Vocabulary

I’ve recently started adding regional variations for sets with differences between North American English and British English vocabulary and/or spelling.

To prepare the lists– in addition to suggestions emailed from teachers– I’m also using the Collins Online Dictionary. Their entries regularly suggest American usage when different from the British, though Canadian or Australian variations are few and far between.

For these regionally differing flashcard sets I’ve omitted IPA cards altogether. Being Canadian, I wanted American pronunciation with (mostly) British English spelling. As it turns out, the number of files needed to accommodate all the combinations would really complicate the drop-down menu. To simplify, I’m just leaving IPA off. Sorry 🙁

Copyright

Materials on ESLFlashcards.com are available for personal and classroom use only. Our flashcards use both royalty-free and licensed images. We cannot grant permission for other uses.

Suggestions

Thank you to the teachers who have sent me requests and suggestions–  feedback is always welcome 🙂