4,456 FREE Verb Tense Worksheets Worksheets
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FREE Verb Tense Worksheets

While some aspects of a new language are fairly easy to teach, tenses can pose a challenge because they vary so much from one language to another. ESL teachers - particularly new ones - tend to struggle a little with teaching tenses, because it’s not always easy to explain exactly how a given tense works in English; or how it contrasts with other, similar tenses. Throw in the problem of teaching tenses in ways that keep students active, interested, and learning, and you’ve got a recipe for a difficult lesson on your hands.

Not all teachers handle these issues in the same ways. The classic approach would be simply to drill students on grammar until they get it right - but that approach has fallen out of use, in favor of a more integrated teaching method that combines speaking, reading, activities, and other forms of learning. The challenge for the modern ESL teacher, then, is to find ways of presenting each tense that enable the students not only to learn it correctly, but also to be able to produce it and use it dynamically in sentences.

That’s exactly where BusyTeacher.org’s 4,456 verb tense worksheets come in. They’re designed by real ESL teachers to help students see how each tense is used, see examples of different applications for it, and practice using it in all kinds of different exercises. With these worksheets, teaching tenses turns from a dull repetitive process into an engaging series of learning activities, that’ll inspire your students to take what they’ve learned out of the classroom and use it in their actual English conversations.

Our 4,456 tense worksheets cover each tense in the book, from present simple to future perfect continuous - and all things in between. They cover singular and plural verbs, irregular verbs, active and passive verbs, positive and negative verbs, and every other form of a verb you want to teach. In combination with the more rigorous rules laid down in your school’s textbook, these worksheets will give students the practice they need to understand every way in which English verbs can be formed.

In addition to all the verb forms our worksheets cover, they’ll also help you introduce variety into your classroom in another way: by giving you a wide variety of different exercises for practicing verbs in various situations. Some of our worksheets, for example, include simple examples and fill-in-the-blank exercises - while others will help your students organize little drama presentations, play games like “pronoun dice” or a quiz show, or read silly stories and lyrics to popular songs - all targeted at teaching the rules for using one particular verb tense or set of tenses.

These worksheets have been proven to work in classrooms of ESL teachers around the world - and in fact, that’s exactly who contributed them to this site. They’re all free to download and use without any registration, and you’re even free to submit your own worksheets if you’d like - just click the “Submit a worksheet” button at the bottom of this page, and join our international community of English teachers helping English teachers!

All our worksheets can be previewed in thumbnail view before you click and download them - so just take a scroll down this page, see what catches your eye, and try out anything that looks interesting in your classroom. We guarantee you’ll love the results!

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Present Perfect Simple Vs Present Perfect Continuous

Present Perfect Simple Vs Present Perfect Continuous

This worksheet separates the differences in uses and functions between the present perfect simple and the present perfect continuous. Students at all levels struggle with undertanding the differe ...
32 Views 97,935 IntAdv
Present Perfect Drill

Present Perfect Drill

A pairwork worksheet designed to give oral practice to elementary students who are new to the present perfect. Students work with a partner and give each other prompts from which their partner co ...
8 Views 13,879 Elem
Distinguishing Between Past Simple and Present Perfect

Distinguishing Between Past Simple and Present Perfect

Students sort functions and uses of past simple and present perfect into two columns. Helps students to choose when to use the simple past and when to use the present perfect. This worksheet is d ...
11 Views 20,529 IntAdv
Present Simple vs Present Continuous Worksheet II

Present Simple vs Present Continuous Worksheet II

This is a 2-page worksheet contrasting the present simple and the present continuous tense. Recommended for elementary students who are asked to look at the pictures read the clues and write sent ...
29 Views 23,868 ElemPre-Int
Guessing Video from Lyrics - Song Worksheet: Stronger by Kelly Clarkson

Guessing Video from Lyrics - Song Worksheet: Stronger by Kelly Clarkson

An activity using video to practise the language of prediction. It can be adpated to any level and grammar point depending on the lyrics difficulty. Teenagers and young adults enjoy those kind of ...
4 Views 13,606 All
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Personality Quiz: Are We Alike?

Personality Quiz: Are We Alike?

This is a fun way for SS to practice the present simple with how much / how many, some / any and a /an. You can use it as a war-up or as a follow-up/review activity. Alternatively, assign the exer ...
17 Views 12,936 Elem
Irregular Verbs Test

Irregular Verbs Test

Irregulars can be tricky, so here they are. This set of cards is to help you to check your students' knowledge of irregular verbs. The verbs are the most common in use. You can vary the ta ...
18 Views 19,928 ElemPre-IntInt
Countries: Present Simple Affirmative, Negative and Question Forms

Countries: Present Simple Affirmative, Negative and Question Forms

This is good for an intro to the Present Simple forms (+ve, -ve and ?). First, I have the flags of the countries printed individually and pasted on the walls of the classroom so students can get i ...
44 Views 62,399 ElemPre-Int
Irregular Verbs Crossword

Irregular Verbs Crossword

This is a crossword containing irregular verbs. The crossword can be used in order to help the young learners to remember the forms of irregular verbs better. The students are to write the past si ...
37 Views 52,479 Pre-IntIntAdv
Expressing Future Board Game

Expressing Future Board Game

The aim of the worksheet is to practise expressing future and suggestions. You can practise going to, present continuous, shall and expression like let's or what about...... This worksheet was pre ...
18 Views 24,368 ElemPre-Int
Song Worksheet: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston [Alternative]

Song Worksheet: I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston [Alternative]

My students asked me to pay tribute to Whitney Houston, so I decided to make this exercise. Besides the tribute you can also link it to future tenses. Giving extra emphasis on the I will part... a ...
14 Views 18,882 ElemPre-Int
Song Worksheet: Cry Cry by Oceana (Simple Past)

Song Worksheet: Cry Cry by Oceana (Simple Past)

I use a lot of music in the classroom, especially with teens, and this was a song my students requested. This is a very simple worksheet which revises regular and irregular verbs in the past simpl ...
12 Views 16,732 Pre-IntIntAdv
Amazing Adventures Reading Worksheet

Amazing Adventures Reading Worksheet

This is a reading activity about interesting journeys. The texts are very interesting and at the beginning they have to talk about the pictures they have work in pairs and describe the pictures. ...
21 Views 23,734 ElemPre-Int
A Day in the Cavemen's Life (Picture Stories, Past Simple)

A Day in the Cavemen's Life (Picture Stories, Past Simple)

The worksheet is great for kids learning past simple. It contains two picture stories about two days in the life of the cavemen ("The Day of the Wheel" and "The Day of the Fire"), that in a funny ...
16 Views 33,753 BegElem
Present Simple Elementary Worksheet II

Present Simple Elementary Worksheet II

A worksheet for teaching the present simple tense. There are 3 pages with activities in which students are asked to complete sentences with the present simple of the verbs in brackets, underline ...
11 Views 21,732 Elem
Pronoun Dice

Pronoun Dice

, Verb Tense Worksheets,
2 dice. One has the pronouns I, you, she, he, we and they on with pictures. The other has a +, - and ?. Tell the student a verb. The student then has to roll both dice and then make a sentence u ...
23 Views 55,305 BegElemPre-IntIntAdv
Present Continuous Worksheet: What Are They Doing?

Present Continuous Worksheet: What Are They Doing?

This is a pair work sheet for students to practice using the present continuous. Student A will ask to student B about information of each of the characters in the worksheet. Ex: A: "What is Sarah ...
10 Views 13,459 Elem
Present Continuous For Criticism

Present Continuous For Criticism

This is a worksheet on using Present Continuous with "always" to express criticism and annoyance. Cut the situations, give them to students and et them express their annoyance with the situations ...
9 Views 13,298 ElemPre-Int
Did You Have A Good Holiday? (dialog, beginner level)

Did You Have A Good Holiday? (dialog, beginner level)

This is a very simple dialog about holidays for kids. The grammar point is Past Simple questions (Did you...? Were you...?). Read the example of the dialog to the students, then put them in pairs ...
16 Views 28,380 Beg
Describe The People Using The Information

Describe The People Using The Information

There are four photos of different people with some information about them (name, age, country, job, languages, hobbies, abilities etc). The task is to describe their lives using given informatio ...
24 Views 14,395 BegElem
Past Perfect Sentence Construction

Past Perfect Sentence Construction

A quick exercise where students work in pairs to build sentences using the past perfect tense. They must choose appropriate words from each column and write the complete sentences underneath. The ...
18 Views 11,797 Int
Future Simple Pairwork Chart

Future Simple Pairwork Chart

This activity is to practice the Simple future (Will) and consists in to make the students ask their partners about their future activities in 10 years. After they collected the information, they ...
11 Views 14,697 Pre-Int
Wh- and How: Board Game

Wh- and How: Board Game

A board game targeted for elementary level adult learners. Students need to formulate a suitable question (using what, where, when, who, how long and how much) for the answer written on each box ...
21 Views 14,194 Elem
Song Worksheet: Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra

Song Worksheet: Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra

This worksheet includes three activities to practice past simple tense in conjunction with Nancy Sinatra's song "Bang Bang." The first activity requires students to listen and choose the correct v ...
7 Views 13,825 ElemPre-Int
Cinema Role Play

Cinema Role Play

Can be used as an introductory task for a class about cinema or before watching a movie. Work in pairs playing out a dialogue between a person who wants to go to the cinema and a cinema clerk. I ...
18 Views 45,051 ElemPre-Int

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