How to Play Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

By Jaques of London · Est. 1795 · Updated 2026-08-17

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral is a spoken guessing game for two to twenty players requiring no equipment whatsoever. One player secretly chooses an object and classifies it into one of three kingdoms: animal, vegetable, or mineral. Everyone else pools their questions, each answered only with yes or no, to pin down what that object is before the allowance of twenty questions runs out.

Its appeal is its absolute simplicity. There is nothing to set up, nothing to lose, and no reading required, which makes it as useful on a long car journey as it is around a parlour table after dinner. The challenge scales naturally with the players: children enjoy straightforward subjects, while adults can choose objects fiendishly difficult to categorise, keeping the game sharp for a wide age range in the same room.

A little history

The game is closely related to the ancient tradition of riddle-asking, but its modern structured form, with the three-kingdom classification and the twenty-question limit, became widely popular in the nineteenth century. The three categories reflect the natural-history classification system familiar to educated Victorians. The game gained broad public recognition in the twentieth century through radio and television programmes that adopted its format, though the parlour version predates all of them. Its precise origins as a named game are unclear.

Setting up

1. Gather all players in a circle or around a table so everyone can hear clearly.
2. Agree on the three kingdoms before play begins: animal (anything that is or was part of an animal), vegetable (anything that is or was part of a plant or fungus), and mineral (everything else, including manufactured objects).
3. Decide whether compound or composite objects are allowed (see Fine Points) and settle any house rules before the first round.
4. Choose the first It by any fair method: youngest player, volunteer, or a quick draw.

How to play

1. The player who is It thinks of a specific object, person, place, or substance and keeps it entirely secret.
2. It announces which kingdom the object belongs to: animal, vegetable, or mineral. If an object spans more than one kingdom, It states the dominant or most relevant one, or may say 'animal and vegetable' and so on, provided this is agreed beforehand.
3. Players then ask yes-or-no questions in turn, going clockwise. Each question must be phrased so that it can be answered honestly with yes, no, or sometimes (where sometimes is used sparingly and only when genuinely accurate).
4. It answers each question honestly. A question that cannot be answered yes or no is returned to the asker to rephrase.
5. The group collectively tracks how many questions have been asked. A tally on fingers or a simple count aloud works perfectly well.
6. Any player who believes they know the answer may state a direct guess on their turn instead of asking a question. A guess counts as one of the twenty questions.
7. If a player guesses correctly before twenty questions are used up, that player becomes the new It and play continues.
8. If all twenty questions are used without a correct guess, It reveals the answer and wins that round. It may choose to take another turn or pass the role to the next player.
9. Play continues for as many rounds as the group wishes.

Winning and scoring

In its traditional form the game has no points and no single winner: it is played for the pleasure of the puzzle. However, many groups introduce a simple scoring system. A correct guess scores one point for the guesser. If It stumps the group, It scores one point. If a player guesses incorrectly, no penalty is applied unless the group agrees otherwise. The player with the most points after an agreed number of rounds, or after each player has been It twice, is the winner.

The fine points

The hardest disputes arise over kingdom classification. A leather shoe is animal in origin; a wooden chair is vegetable; a glass bottle is mineral. Objects made from multiple kingdoms are the real flashpoint: a pencil (wood barrel, graphite core) and a cheese sandwich (animal and vegetable) are common culprits. The standard ruling is that It must declare all kingdoms represented, or agree to name the dominant one before the round starts. Whichever convention is chosen must be consistent for the whole game.

A second common dispute is over the word 'sometimes'. It is legitimate only when the answer genuinely varies by context, for example 'Is it found indoors?' might fairly attract 'sometimes'. It should not be used as an evasion. Players may challenge a 'sometimes' answer and ask It to justify it briefly. If It cannot, the question is re-answered as yes or no. Guesses that are close but not exact, for example guessing 'an oak tree' when the answer is 'a specific acorn', are at the group's discretion: agree before play whether near-misses count.

How to win more often

• Open with broad categorical questions: Is it alive? Is it man-made? Is it larger than a loaf of bread? These eliminate vast swathes of possibility in the first five questions.
• Work from the general to the specific. Pinpoint the category before chasing the object. Knowing it is a plant product used indoors tells you far more than a dozen random guesses.
• As It, choose objects that sit at the boundary of kingdoms or that players rarely think of in isolation, such as a cork, a sponge, or a pearl. Familiar objects in unfamiliar categories are harder than obscure objects in obvious ones.
• Keep a mental map of what has been ruled out. Repeating ground that another player already covered wastes precious questions and irritates the group.
• Save direct guesses until you are genuinely confident. An early wrong guess wastes a question and gives nothing back to the group.

Variations

Team Play

Divide players into two teams. One team supplies It; the other team shares all twenty questions collectively, with a nominated spokesperson stating each question. Teams alternate the It role each round. The team that guesses correctly scores a point; the It team scores if the group fails. This works especially well with larger groups and keeps everyone engaged rather than waiting for their individual turn.

Themed Rounds

Before each round, the group agrees a theme: items found in a kitchen, things seen on a beach, objects in a specific room of the house. It must choose something within that theme. This variant is excellent for younger children as it narrows the universe of possible answers to a manageable size without removing the core guessing challenge.

Shrinking Questions

Start the first round with twenty questions. Each subsequent round played by the same It reduces the allowance by two, so the second round has eighteen, the third sixteen, and so on, down to a minimum of ten. It must choose increasingly accessible objects to remain fair as the limit drops, and the group must question more efficiently. This variation rewards experienced players and keeps the game from going stale in longer sessions.

Famous Person

It must choose a real or fictional person rather than an object. The kingdom rule is dropped: all subjects are implicitly animal. The twenty-question limit remains. Questioners may ask about nationality, profession, historical period, gender, living or dead, real or fictional, and similar attributes. A correct guess must include the full name. This variant suits older children and adults and is the format adopted by many quiz-based television programmes based on the game.

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral: frequently asked questions