How to Play Charades

Charades is a popular guessing game. Players work as a team with one member acting out a word without speaking or making a sound, and the other team members guessing what the word is as quickly as possible.

Charades Rules

The rules used for the acted charades are usually informal and vary widely, but commonly agree in essence with the basic rules:

The players divide into two or more teams
One member of the team, the "actor", draws a card with phrases, which is kept secret from the remainder of the other team, the "guessers"
The actor then has a limited period of time in which to convey the secret phrases to the guessers by pantomime
The actor can act out the phrases in order of his choosing and can switch between phrases anytime
The actor may not make any sounds or lip movements
The actor cannot point out at any of the objects present in the scene, if by doing so they are helping their teammates
Most commonly, the actor is allowed to make any gestures other than blatantly spelling out the word
The guessers attempt to guess the words or phrases based on the actor's performance. They can ask questions, to which the actor may give non-verbal responses, such as nodding in affirmation
If any of the guessers says the correct word or word within the time limit in the literal form as written on the card, the team gets a point for that word
The teams alternate until each team member has had an opportunity to be the actor

Since so many rules can vary, clarifying all the rules before the game begins can avoid problems later

Charades Signals

Action/Verb - Run in place
Location - Make a circle with one hand, then point to it, as if pointing to a dot on a map
Person - Stand with hands on hips
Number of words in the word - Hold up the number of fingers
Which word you’re working on - Hold up the number of fingers again
Length of word - Make a "little" or "big" sign as if you were measuring a fish
Sounds like - Cup one hand behind an ear
Longer version - Pretend to stretch a piece of elastic
Shorter version - Do a karate chop with your hand
Plural - Link your little fingers
Past tense - Wave your hand over your shoulder toward your back
Not even close, I’ll start over - Wave hand in a wide sweep
Close, keep guessing - Spin your hands in a circular motion imitating a spinning wheel towards a person who is close to correct guess
Correct guess - Point at your nose with one hand, while pointing at the person with your other hand