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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This ws consists of 4 exercises to revise the past of to be and regular verbs.
In
1) the students have to change sentences from present to past,
2) they have to write the misisng affirmative, n ...
In this worksheet there are 24 pictures and 24 sentences that the students have to complete by putting the correct affirmative, negative or interrogative form of the verb to be. It can be used to ...
24 pictures & 24 sentences to fill in with the correct affirmative, negative, interrogative or short answer of have/has got. It's also a chance to practise both speaking and writing about the ...
This is a present continuous tense worksheet. Children should fill in the blanks by looking the pictures. There are ten sentences. Children should use 'chores' with present continuous tense. Afte ...
4 exercises to practise both present tenses. There are two separated exercises to write the sentences in the present simple and continuous and 2 other exercises to revise both forms: underlying th ...
I prepared this sheet for my students in order to practise the difference between will-going to. there may be some spelling mistakes, sorry about this.I have used this before a general exam. They ...
In this worksheet there are three exercises. In the first one students have to watch a table about any Disney characters preferences. In the second activity students have to write the right q ...
This is a worksheet for teaching the past simple tense. Students are asked to read the text, according to the text, build up five sentences using elements from the columns and write sentences usi ...
A worksheet contrasting the past simple and the past continuous tense. There are 3 different activities in which students are asked to complete different sentences using the past simple or the p ...
A worksheet contrasting the present perfect simple and the past simple tenses. There are 3 exercises in which students are asked to use the prompts to write present perfect sentences using the ad ...
I have a lot of students that are adults and usually they like older songs. This activity is also and vocabulary activity but it can be combined with the movie 50 FIRST DATES. Its is part of it's ...
This worksheet is for secondary school students. It shows the forms and has some exercies. In affirmative practice studens are required to choose the right form of the verbs. In negative form prac ...
This worksheet is a gap filling exercise. It consists of 11 sentences and a close test which require students to write the correct form of the verbs in brackets. amost all the sentences include ke ...
This is a PPT document on future tenses (simple future, be going to, future continuous, future perfect simple and future perfect continuous). It includes functions and example sentences in order t ...
This is a 2-page worksheet for teaching the present simple tense, affirmative form. There´s a brief explanation at the top of the page followed by 2 different activities in which students a ...
This activity was developed for beginners, but it can also be adapted for higher levels. First part: they work individually giving answers about themselves. Then teachers should pair students up ...
Instructions:
Draw a line from each item on the left to a matching item on the right, translate them into your own language and order them as they are true for you.
Get students to write sentences using like or dislike about the two characters below. Later, ask them to write about themselves, or about a classmate without saying who he/she is!
Give each student a workshee of three picture-dialogue. Get them to write a short dialogue between these two character. When finished, aske them to cut it into three parts. Mix all the dialog ...
Let your students have some fun with this boardgame on daily routines. They can prove their knowledge while spending a good time with classmates and, of course, learning at the same time. This is ...
A 2-page worksheet for teaching the simple past of regular verbs. Students are asked to study the verbs provided on the first page, find them in the puzzle and then match the verbs with the pictures.
1. Put students in groups of four or six. 2. Give each group a board, dice and enough counters or coins for each player. 3. Students take turns to roll the dice and move around the board. When the ...
A worksheet for revising the past simple of regular verbs. Students are asked to study the verbs, find them in the wordsearch puzzle and them match the verbs with the pictures. The worksheet is r ...
25 pictures dealing with daily routine activities to practise the present simple tense in all forms: affirmative, negative and interrogative. The students can also use it to write about their dail ...
Mixed exercise based on Someone like you by Adele Fill in the gaps Order the sentences Choose the correct word Number in the correct order Fill in the gaps with the appropriate preposition Identi ...
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