How to play Flags & Capitals

What a flags and capitals quiz is

A flags quiz shows you a flag and asks which country it belongs to. A capitals quiz names a country and asks for its capital, or the other way round. Many quizzes add map shapes, the outline of a country on its own, which is harder than it sounds without the neighbours around it. Most use multiple choice, so the skill is not only knowing the answer but ruling out the wrong ones quickly.

There are 193 members of the United Nations and two observer states, 195 in all. Nobody learns them in one sitting. The players who know them all learned them a region at a time, and kept coming back to the ones they missed.

Playing Flags & Capitals on AllFun

AllFun Flags & Capitals has every one of those 195 countries. Flags, Capitals and Map Shapes are each played by area, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas, Oceania or the whole World, at Easy, Medium and Hard. There is also Continents, where you sort twelve flags by continent, and Bigger or Smaller, where you pick the country with more people or more land.

The Daily Quiz is ten questions, the same for everyone, and the Flag gallery shows all 195 flags with a short fact for each. Find more quizzes and puzzles on our puzzle games page.

How the quiz is scored

• A level is ten questions with four answers each. A wrong answer shows the right one and a short fact.
• Clearing it takes four mistakes or fewer, and opens the next level of that area: Medium after Easy, Hard after Medium.
• Stars: no mistakes gives three, and so does one mistake if you answer the ten within 50 seconds. Two mistakes or fewer is two stars.
• Fair wrong answers: on Easy a flag is never set beside its look-alike; on Hard the look-alikes come in, and some capital questions turn round to name the country.
• Helpers: 50/50 takes away two wrong answers, and Hint gives clues one at a time, such as the region, a neighbour or the first letter. You get two of each free every day.

Learn mode

Every flag, capital or shape you miss goes into Learn. It is ready to review straight away, and after each right answer the gap before it returns grows: one day, then two, then four. The fourth right answer in a row sends it away for good, and a wrong answer starts it again. This is spaced review, the way language learners memorise words.

Six tips for flags and capitals

1. Read the design, not the colour. Count the stripes, note whether they run across or down, and look for a cross, a star, a sun or an emblem. Colours repeat across many flags; layouts much less.
2. Learn the look-alikes as pairs. Chad and Romania share almost the same three bands. Indonesia and Monaco are both red over white. The Netherlands and Luxembourg differ mostly in the shade of blue. Learn each pair together and their one difference.
3. Use the families. The Nordic cross runs through Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland. Many flags in Africa share green, yellow and red. Knowing the family narrows four answers to one or two.
4. Watch for capitals that are not the biggest city. Abuja, not Lagos. Bern, not Zurich. Wellington, not Auckland. Rabat, not Casablanca. These are the questions most people get wrong.
5. Go one region at a time. Finish Easy for one area before you open the next. A short list you know well beats a long one you half know.
6. Review every day. A few minutes of Learn and the Daily Quiz each day does more than one long session a week.

Flags quiz FAQ