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ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases Bingo Card Generator

Print free ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo cards from 42 entries such as Sorry, Long time no see and Good to see you. Each 5x5 card with a free center holds 24 of them, so every card in a set is different; with 30 players the first line usually comes after about 12 calls, roughly 2 minutes at 10 seconds a call.

ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases Bingo
BINGO
Have a good weekend
Hello
Have a nice day
See you soon
Please
How's it going?
Long time no see
How have you been?
Excuse me
I'm fine, thanks
Not bad
Good luck
FREE
How are you?
See you tomor­row
You're welcome
See you later
This is my friend
My pleasure
Good evening
Nice to meet you
Pleased to meet you
Welcome
Same to you
Sorry
Card 1 of 30

Free: up to 30 different cards per set. Pro: up to 1,000.

Edit words (42)

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.

Updated

About ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo

ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases Bingo covers how English speakers say hello, goodbye and thank you, from “Good morning” and “Nice to meet you” to casual forms like “How's it going?” and “Long time no see”, plus polite replies such as “You're welcome”, “Same to you” and “Bless you”. It suits the first lesson with any new class.

42 entries make up this ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases set. With 24 per card, any single one, My pleasure for example, appears on about 57% of the cards, so in a room of 30 players around 17 of them have it.

Play it like classic bingo: one person reads the 42 entries in the shuffled order of the caller sheet, everyone marks matching squares, and a full row, column or diagonal wins.

All 42 ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo words

Every entry from And you? to You're welcome, grouped by first letter. Edit them in the generator above: drop Long time no see if it does not suit your group, or add your own.

  • A: And you?
  • B: Bless you, Bye
  • C: Congratulations 🎉
  • E: Excuse me
  • G: Good afternoon, Good evening, Good luck 🍀, Good morning 🌅, Good night 🌙, Good to see you, Goodbye
  • H: Happy birthday 🎂, Have a good weekend, Have a nice day, Hello 👋, Hi, How are you?, How have you been?, How's it going?
  • I: I'm fine, thanks
  • L: Long time no see
  • M: My pleasure
  • N: Nice to meet you, No problem, Not bad
  • P: Pardon?, Please, Pleased to meet you
  • S: Same to you, See you later, See you soon, See you tomorrow, Sorry
  • T: Take care, Talk to you later, Thank you 🙏, This is my friend
  • W: Welcome, Welcome back, What's up?
  • Y: You're welcome

ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo at a glance

Entries 42 words and phrases
Card 5x5 card with a free center: 24 of the 42
How it is played A caller reads the shuffled caller sheet
Different cards possible about 2.19 × 10³⁵ (order matters)
Different selections 353,697,121,050 sets of 24 entries
Shortest entry Hi (2 characters)
Longest entry Pleased to meet you (19 characters)
Multi-word entries 33 of 42, such as Good morning and Good afternoon
Picture squares 7 of 42 entries have a symbol, e.g. 👋 Hello, 🌅 Good morning, 🌙 Good night
Good for ESL lessons, classrooms, adults and kids
Category Language arts & ESL (61 themes)

How long ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo lasts

Simulated over 150 shuffled games on cards 1-60 of this set: the median first line arrives on call 12 with 30 players and on call 15 with 10, while a blackout takes 38 calls, roughly 6 minutes at 10 seconds a call.

ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo: calls until the first winner, 42 entries in the deck
PlayersFirst lineLine, 80% rangeBlackoutBlackout, 80% range
10 players15 calls12-2040 calls38-41
30 players12 calls9-1638 calls37-40
60 players11 calls8-1438 calls36-39
1 card (exact average)--41.3 callsof 42

How to host ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo

  1. Print the ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases cards

    Give each player one card; a free set prints up to 30, no two alike. Card 1 above starts with Have a good weekend, Hello, Have a nice day, See you soon and Please.

  2. Print the caller sheet

    All 42 entries appear on it in shuffled order, opening with Welcome, What's up?, Hello, Good to see you and Pleased to meet you; tick each one as you read it out.

  3. Call a situation instead of the phrase, such as “someone sneezes” for “Bless you” or “you leave work on Friday” for “Have a good weekend”.

  4. Sort formal and casual phrases with the class, putting “Pleased to meet you” next to “Hi” and “What's up?”, and ask who you would say each one to.

  5. Practice reply pairs as you play: when one player marks “How are you?”, the next player answers “I'm fine, thanks” or “Not bad”, followed by “And you?”.

  6. Call until someone shouts bingo

    With 30 cards, expect the first line near call 12 (No problem in this set's order) and a blackout near call 38; check the winner's squares against your ticked list.

ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo variations

  • ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases variation

    Greeting walkabout: players circulate and may only mark a phrase after using it with a classmate in a real mini-conversation, such as “Nice to meet you” followed by a handshake or a wave.

  • Blackout round

    Card 1 needs all 24 squares, Have a good weekend to Sorry; on average one card fills after 41.3 of the 42 calls (98% of the deck).

  • Quick 4x4 round

    A 4x4 card needs 16 of the 42 entries and no free space; one card is full after about 40.5 calls instead of 41.3.

First 15 calls of this ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases set

Seed "esl-greetings" gives this order, the same one the caller sheet prints. With these calls, card 16 of the first 30 completes the N column (Pleased to meet you, Hello, Sorry and See you soon) on call 11, and card 28 is the first full card on call 39.

CallEntryCards marked (of 30)
1Welcome19 of 30
2What's up?16 of 30
3Hello 👋17 of 30
4Good to see you18 of 30
5Pleased to meet you20 of 30
6Excuse me21 of 30
7Goodbye19 of 30
8Good morning 🌅18 of 30
9Welcome back14 of 30
10Sorry17 of 30
11See you soon16 of 30
12No problem10 of 30
13Please23 of 30
14How's it going?18 of 30
15Bless you16 of 30

Themes like ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases 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 Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo list?

42, from And you? to You're welcome. A 5x5 card with a free center uses 24 of them, so each card leaves out 18. The shortest entry is Hi (2 characters) and the longest is Pleased to meet you (19).

Are all ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo cards the same?

No. Card 1 and card 2 of this set share 15 of their 24 squares, and every card is checked so none of the 30 in a free set repeats. About 2.19 × 10³⁵ different arrangements are possible from the 42 entries (353,697,121,050 different selections of 24).

How many ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo cards per person?

One card each is standard. In 150 simulated games of this list, 30 players on one card each got a first line after a median 12 calls; with two cards each (60 in play) it came after 11, and 10 single cards took 15. 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 Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo take?

An ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases game with 30 players usually reaches its first line after 12 calls (9-16 in 80% of simulated games), about 2 minutes at one call every 10 seconds. A blackout takes about 38; with 10 players the first line needs about 15.

Can I print ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo cards for free?

Yes. The generator above makes up to 30 cards (5x5 cards with a free center) from the 42 entries; Print cards sends them to your printer and Download PDF saves one card per page, so 30 cards take 30 pages plus the caller sheet. It all runs in your browser with no sign-up.

How do I make my own ESL Greetings and Polite Phrases bingo cards?

Open Edit words in the generator above: it already holds the 42 entries, one per line. Replace Good to see you 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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