In the US, when children play a game of tag, there will be one kid who’s “It”. That means they’re the one who has to run around and tag people. There are many different games where one person will be “It”. Being “It” could be good or bad depending on the game.

It seems the term is also used in New Zealand nowadays. Norman Preston wrote, “As a New Zealand septuagenarian, all I ever heard as a child was that the tagged person was ‘he’. But probably 40 years ago or more all our children began to say ‘it’. And that seems to be the rule, though one of our grandchildren simply calls out ‘tag’, which seems to be all that’s needed.”

Monique Palomares wrote, “In France, if we play cat or wolf, we say “le chat” (the cat) or “le loup” (the wolf). Otherwise, most of the time it’s, ‘celui qui y est’ (literally, ‘the one who’s in’ or ‘the one who’s there’).

‘Jouer à chat’ or ‘jouer au loup’ is the same thing in France as playing tag. And if you play ‘chat perché’ (perched cat), whoever is the cat does not have the right to touch you if you are ‘perched’ on something (standing on a stone, a root etc …).”

What do you call the person who’s “It” in your culture? Please comment below to let us know!

-Mama Lisa

UPDATE: On May 16th, the New York Times published an article on British and Irish dialects. One part was a poll about what people say in a game of tag. In different parts of the UK and Ireland, people say “It”, “tag,” “tick,” or “tig.”