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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Worksheet on verb “ Have Got”, clothes and colours vocabulary, including reading comprehension, writing and several grammar exercises. It can be used as a test for elementary students.
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A simple but very useful exercise for elementary students in "Verb To Be". Includes several exercises to practice affirmative, interrogative and negative forms. in which students fill in the gaps ...
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This PowerPoint presentation contains some essential tips to write a short story, by explaining the main information we have to use for example: dates, places, title, etc. It can be used with begi ...
It is a speaking activity using PPt. Students work in pairs and practise Wh- questions and answers using Present Simple. One of the students who is sitting with his/her back to the board has to an ...
Students can review the affirmative, negative and question form through a table and do a few exercicises. In ex. 1 & 2 Stds write affirmative and questions.
You can find basic excercises about the verb "to be". It is practised in different forms like making positive & negative sentences and questions. I prepared it for complete beginners and it se ...
This task is based on the film "the day after tomorrow". It can be used on a lesson about global warming. Students watch the movie and then complete this worksheet. At the end of the task they hav ...
Worksheet on Present Simple tense, daily routines and frequency adverbs, including 8 pages with several exercises to review and reinforce the topic. Fill in the blanks, matching, sentence build ...
Revision on colors and the verb to be Affirmative and Negative. Through a link toa short video, students listen, analyze and complete a chart on colors. Also an analysis on the difference between ...
This is a writing exercise, revising the Present Simple and Continuous, the Past Simple and Continuous and the Future Simple. There are affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences to be form ...
This is a reading comprehension about daily routines. Students read the text then they do a True /False exercise, correcting the false ones, and answer some questions. It can be used as a test for ...
A worksheet on the past simple tense of the Verb To Be including reading comprehension and some grammar exercises It´s fully editable and can also be used as a test for elementary students.
Worksheet to learn and practise the use of Present Perfect Continuous tense including a grammar guide explaining the use, form, time indicators and several exercises: choose the correct form of th ...
This is a simple activity I came up with and used with my Elementary class. The purpose is to have the students practice writing sentences with 'there is/are' as well as remind them of the differe ...
This is a great game for pair work. You’ll need one sheet per student pair. Instructions: • Students choose a mark of their own. (star, smiley face, heart, diamond) • Decide who go ...
Worksheet to practise Past Continuous Tense for elementary students Including 16 different and ilustrated sentences in which students have to complete the sentences with the correct form of the v ...
The song Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega gives a great opportunity for both teenagers and adults to practice all Past Tense Forms. At first, students may be asked to listen to the original song ...
A worksheet to study and to practise affirmative, negative and question forms of Simple Past of irregular verbs. Including a grammar guide explaining the use, rules, spelling rules, form and the m ...
A board game to practise Present Continuous in which students have to make affirmative, negative or interrogative sentences according to the pictures and the verbs given. Recommended for elementar ...
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