Free printable English word cards for kids (with pictures)

Picture cards are an easy way to bring a few English words into the day of a child who is growing up in another language. These are free to download and print.

They are made from the stories in Kiara, a picture-book app. Each card has a picture, the English word and the same word in the language your child already knows.

Download the cards

Choose a story, the language your child knows and English as the language to learn, then press "Download the PDF" and print on A4. A page holds eight cards, and a story has roughly 30 to 50 words.

Three games to play with them

Point to it: lay out a few cards, say a word in English and let the child point. Understanding comes before speaking, so do not ask for the word back.

Memory: print the same page twice and you have a memory game. Read each card aloud as it is turned over.

Treasure hunt: choose cards for things you have at home, such as a bed, a window or a ball, and go and find them together.

Do not stop at the cards

Words learned as a list tend to fade within days. The pictures are cut from scenes in the stories, so a child who has heard the story first remembers the scene along with the word.

A card has no sound. In the app, tapping an object in the story plays how the word is pronounced (the voice is synthetic). The first story is free.