Charades: An Act of Guessing

The game Charades originated in France and takes its name from an old French word meaning “to talk.” This may seem strange, because the actor in a game of charades is not allowed to speak at all. The “talking” in charades is entirely pantomime: actions and gestures instead of words.

To play charades, a group is divided into two teams. Each team takes turns acting and guessing a word or words within a set time limit. If time runs out before the word is guessed, the actors must stop. The audience team tries to guess the word before time runs out because the team with the lowest time score at the end of the game wins. Charades can be played in two ways: simple charades and “The Game”.

In simple charades, several people in a team represent the different syllables of a word. The group is divided into two teams. A team leaves the room to choose a word to act on. The word must have two or more syllables, each of which can act as a shorter word. If, for example, the word “decorate” is chosen, the team might act out the word “deck” first, then “row,” and then “ate.” The last step is to act out the entire word in a pantomime scene. When a word is guessed or time is called, the other team takes their turn to act out a word. The game can continue for as long as the players want.

The other version of charades is so popular that it is sometimes called simply “The Game.” In this game, only one person acts. He pantomimes entire sentences for members of his own team. Sometimes it represents the titles of songs, books or movies. Nursery rhymes and familiar proverbs are other good topics.

The two teams meet in separate groups, with each team selecting several sentences for the other team to act out. Each sentence is written on a piece of paper. The person who is going to be the first actor receives a piece of paper from the opposing team and reads it. It’s timed from the moment he says he’s ready to go. The other members of his team can ask questions, but the actor can respond only with actions. When finished, a person from the other team draws a sentence and begins to act. The game must continue until all players have had their turn as actors.