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!
Create awesome-looking custom word searches in seconds!
Make A Word Scramble:
Instantly create custom word/sentence scrambles for your class!
Make A Double Puzzle:
Generate double puzzles your students will love - hours of fun!
ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
Students practice using the present perfect by asking classmates about different experiences they may have had. Students must mingle with classmates and ask the questions listed on the worksheet. ...
This worksheet consists of 18 pictures, 18 verbs and 18 sentences with blanks. The students have to choose a verb from the list, fill in the sentences with the correct present continuos form and m ...
An overview of the present simple. This provides a brief explanation of when to use the simple present, sample conjugations of some commonly used verbs, and fill in the blank exercises to help st ...
Thanks to "vanda51" for the fairy tale flashcards, my young learners love them! I've only added a few cards with words on them to make them come up with stories. I use it for past simple primarily ...
This is a worksheet for teaching the present perfect continuous. There´s a brief explanation at the top of the page followed by 2 different activities in which students are asked to look at ...
The worksheets consists of two parts: 1) general discussion questions, like "Do you think time travel is possible?" etc; 2) pictures to use for developing ideas about future inventions and advert ...
There are cards with the sequence of actions. One child is a suspect. He takes a card and imitates the given movements. Others are detectives. They are watching him and guessing what he’s d ...
It is a worksheet for beginner or elementary students. It is about programmes on TV and the uses of the present simple tense. There is also an exercise on adverbs of frequency. You can also find a ...
In this worksheet our students will learn when the past simple and the past continuous are used and formed. First they will read and fill a text on the form and use of both tenses. Then They will ...
In this worksheet our students will learn how to use the present simple and continuous. They will practice the use and for of the affirmative, negative and interrogative structures and they will h ...
This worksheet is about the use of the structure be going to. In this worksheet our students will learn how this form is used in affirmative, negative and interrogative structures. They will also ...
It is communicative activity. Student A has a chart with questions and the answer to some of these questions and student B has the same chart but with the answers to A's questions. The aim of this ...
In this worksheet the students will have to read a text about different wedding traditions and then they will have to do different comprehension activities. They will improve their vocabulary by m ...
A famous song by Depeche Mode can be used to illustrate the usage of Present Perfect Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous. After listening, filling in the gaps and some singing, give the student ...
It is a communicative activity. They have to work in pairs. Student A has got a chart with student B answers so they have to ask each other in order to fill all the gaps. Each chart has three col ...
Several activities on the form and use of the present simple and continuous. The three firs activities are about the use of the positive, negative and interrogative form of the present simple and ...
This is a good example of mixed tenses and verb forms for intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced level. I got it from an old grammar book. It is based in the past with some examples of past ...
The lyrics of a song by the Beatles. Listen and enjoy. Helps students to understand how to use WILL for promises. After listening match the words with their meanings: 1. make somebody love someb ...
This is a worksheet suitable for elementary students on simple past of the verb to be. There is a simple grammar guide followed by 3 different activities in which students are asked to fill in th ...
Hi! This is a short test for beginners to revise different items. It is a short text with some comprehension, true or false statements+ justification questions and some grammar related to ...
This set of cards is designed to help students practice or review present continuous sentences. Printed double-sided, the cards can be used as flashcards; printed on two separate sheets, they can ...
This set of cards is designed to help students practice or review "there is" and "there are" sentences. Printed double-sided, the cards can be used as flashcards; printed on two separate sheets, ...
Useful to practise the build up and the common uses of the present perfect. It may be used as pairwork in the classroom to check the learning of this grammar item... It is also cinema related, so ...
Here's an ]interesting activity for Present Continuous tense: your learners will need to look at the pictures and write what Winnie is doing in each picture.