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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The worksheet has exercises to practice affirmative and negative forms. its mostly for intermediate students. It can be used to practice the tense. You'll find regular and irregular verbs here. St ...
This easy worksheet about TO BE is quite good for students under 10s. Children can practice while they enjoy the drawings. It is a gap filling exercise where attention on singular and plural mus ...
This is a 2-page worksheet for teaching daily routines with 5 different activities in which students are asked to match the pictures with the corresponding caption and order them, write a small c ...
This is a ws to review some grammar points at the beginning of school year, which can also help you spot the "problem areas" your students might have in terms of grammar. The exercises include tas ...
In this exercise pupils have to unscramble the words and then they have to solve the secret message using the code. Pupils can practise vocabulary about food and drinks and the structures "Do you ...
This worksheet is a test to check your pupils' knowledge of these two tenses. There are 12 sentences, they are not difficult, so that you can see if somebody in your class doesn't understand the ...
This is a simple worksheet contrasting the present simple and the present continuous tenses, for elementary students, which includes a brief explanation and an activity where students are asked ...
Two pages filled with exercises to revise the present simple of the verb to be, where students are asked to find the correct answer for each question, complete the table with full and short forms ...
Here is a simple but effective worksheet, suitable for elementary students, for teaching or revising the present perfect simple tense, with detailed explanations, example sentences and 2 differen ...
This 2-page worksheet is suitable for elementary students. The first page is basically just a study sheet with detailed explanations and example sentences, and the second page has a simple a ...
This worksheet will help students to understand Simple Present. It also helps students to use verb -s or -es for third singular person (he, she, it). Students have opportunity to use not only affi ...
Present Perfect Tense and Present Perfect Continuous Tense fill in the blanks. Practice Sheet can be used as an exercise at the end of lesson or as a practice sheet. Classes 4-6. Also can be used ...
Cut up into separate pieces, each piece containing a question or an answer. Shuffle. Students match the questions with the answers. You can also turn this into a competition instead by splitting S ...
This boardgame is designed for elementary students who are studying the verb to be. Students work in groups or pairs with dice and counters, when they land on a square they are asked to make nega ...
With this colourful worksheet elementary students will learn the simple past tense and practise it through 3 different exercises in which they are asked to to write the simple past of the verbs g ...
In this powerpoint, there is a short reading text. A young girl gives us some information about her life, family and hobbies. Students read the short text and then there are some comprehension que ...
This is a bingo activity about irregular verbs, it is useful for those who want to learn irregular verbs easily. Besides, you can add extra information while teaching verbs - for instance, their u ...
This is a short revision worksheet on present simple tense with 3 different tasks in which students are asked to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in brackets, reorder the wor ...
Reading worksheet about the daily routines of chef Matt Del'icious, a fictional character who tells us about the things he does everyday. There is a further exercise on comprehension which include ...
Word worksheet to use elementary opposite adjectives (old/new, old/young, fat/slim, big/small, cheap/expensive, boring/interesting...). There are different pairs of pictures (things and famous car ...
Questions are important. Students learn how to make questions in present simple. They fill in the gaps, make questions. It's a two-page worksheet that I hope you teachers can use in your classes w ...
Reading activity, suitable for elementary students, on daily routines and the present simple tense with 3 different exercises in which students are asked to decide whether the sentences are true ...
An exercise for "Latin" speakers (with French, Italian, Spanish, etc. as their mother tongue) to differentiate between the use of "be" and "have" as verbs in English. Makes it clear when to use on ...
In this exercise you have to write sentences using present continuous tense. We can see many people doing different activities in the open air. In this exercise there is a house so students can ta ...
This is a simple, useful and attractive worksheet with explanations, example sentences and 3 different exercises to practise the verb to be, interrogative form. Suitable for elementary students, i ...
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