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 reading comprehension worksheet deals with the origins and traditions of Halloween.The exercises are aimed at elememtary young learners. The text was taken from another worksheet at abcteach. ...
This worksheet is for beginner or elementary - pupils make a question to the answer. Teacher can use it as a test or revision of present simple. Pupils can correct it themself and choose the righ ...
Three simple exercises that help understand the difference between the PAST SIMPLE and PAST CONTINUOUS tenses. In the first exercise you just have to choose the correct alternative, in the second ...
This is a 2-page worksheet contrasting the present simple and the the present continuous tense. It includes simple explanations and several exercises in which students are asked to look at the pi ...
A worksheet for revising the present perfect simple tense. There are explanations at the top of the page followed by 3 exercises in which students are asked to provide questions for the answers g ...
This is a presentation for teaching or revising the present continuous tense. Suitable for elementary students, the vocabulary used is very simple and the slides are colourful and appealing.
Two simple exercises that help understand the difference between FOR and SINCE and the use of the correct verb tense. In the first exercise you just have to choose the correct alternative, in the ...
4 exercises to practise the 3 forms of have got.
There are two children, Mark & Jane, and their possessions.
In exercise 1 students have to fill in the gaps with the correct affirmative or n ...
4 exercises to revise the verb to be in the affirmative and the negative form:
exercise 1: students have to fill in the gaps with the correct affirmative form;
exercise 2 with the negative of to ...
It is a worksheet divided in two parts: first there a complete systematisation of use and form of each verb tense and secondly there are two exercises to practise the studied verb tenses. The exer ...
This is a written test with two reading comprehension exercises, 5 grammar exercises ( TO BE, THERE TO BE, possessive adjectives and pronouns, present simple and question words), a vocabulary exer ...
This presentation has been made for my first year students. As they are already familiar with this tense I have decided to start with examples of four basic uses. These slides (well, most of them) ...
I uploaded this worksheet in order to emphasize the differences between the past simple tense and past perfect tense. Students usually have difficulties to understand it, so I think this worksheet ...
This worksheet contains some grammar explanation and there are 4 activities:
1-complete the sentences using the simple past
2-complete the sentences using the past continuous
3-complete th ...
There are a number of bizarre situations that your students are involved in that they have to explain what happened and why they were in this situation. For example ''Tom was seen running down the ...
This is a worksheet about Georges Auguste Escoffier (French chef). First a text about his life, followed by questions. It is a ws to practise reading comprehension with simple past tense + a ...
It's a game for elementary level students. You've got 3 cards with people and 12 cards with different stuff. The task for your students is to read the information about people and then say what th ...
Simple Present of the verb "to be" for complete beginners practising the affirmative, negative and interrogrative forms of the verbs. You can use it in the classroom or as an extra acitivity to be ...
A worksheet for teaching the past continuous tense. There are simple explanations at the top of the page followed by 3 exercises in which students are asked to complete the sentences using the c ...
This is a 2-page worksheet, suitable for elementary students, on present continuous tense. There are 4 exercises in which students are asked to look at the picture and write sentences using the ...
16 fill in the blank sentences using before/after dependant phrases. Simple Future practice (will+verb). Hand out to students and have them complete the sentences. Go around the classroom and h ...
There are 4 activities:
1-look at the picture: match the pictures with the words
2-complete the paragraph using the simple past tense of the verbs in brackets
3-make questions
4-look at the pi ...
With this handout students can have some additional practice on Present Continuous Tense. It can be suitable for the 3rd or 4th grades. Students will answer the questions by looking at the picture ...
This is a beautiful song by the great singer-songwiter Tracy Chapman. It´s a love song. It can be used to practise first conditional sentences, especially when they are used to make promises.
There are 3 activities for little kids, they will revise coulours and clothes.
1-Complete the words that are under the pictures.
2- Find the words in the wordsearch
3- Read the descriptions of ...
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