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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These are the lyrics of the song Till there was you, by the Beatles, used to show the structure of there + to be in the past tense. My students seemed to like it. Aimed at elementary students who ...
This worksheet focuses on verbs used for chores and errands. The first page lists some suggestions for use. There are six unlabeled pages of pictures, one for each of these categories: cleaning, d ...
A lovely text for reading with tasks, a poem and some riddles about animals + nice pictures! Your tasks are:
to correct the sentences,
to choose the best title.
On this printable you'll find ...
A worksheet about the difference between the past simple and the past continuous containing two different tasks: 1. Use the words to complete the sentences. 2. Complete the sentences with the co ...
A page and a half of sentences divided into three tasks. Each task has gaps that need to be filled, and the last one requires students to make yes/no question out of the sentences they have comple ...
This presentation provides form and common uses of the Present Perfect Tense. The examples have been carefully chosen and presented in an enjoyable and memorable way. At the end there is a form pr ...
This is a PowerPoint presentation (game) to practice the Present Simple tense and Vocabulary related with Hobbies. Students listen and read the question look at the picture and choose the correct ...
Worksheet to provide Simple Past of Verb To Be practice including 8 different and easy tasks for elementary or pre- intermediate students. Exercises included: - Complete with the sentences with w ...
A worksheet designed to provide Verb To Be practice with 8 different tasks, including negative, affirmative and Interrogative form: -Write the missing words of the verb To Be , affirmative, negat ...
Worksheet dealing with Present Simple tense and frequency adverbs for beginners. Tasks included: 1. Complete the sentences with do, does, don't, doesn't. 2. Complete the sentences with the pre ...
This is a 3-page Worksheet including a Grammar guide and several exercises to learn the imperative and Classroom instructions. tasks included: 1- Match the classroom instructions in the box wi ...
Here's a simple worksheet dealing with the verb to be in the present, providing 4 different tasks for students to practice negative, affirmative and Interrogative form of To Be: 1. Reading compr ...
Form and use of the present continuous followed by four exercises in which students fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in brackets; complete sentences and change the sentences ...
THis worksheet explains have got/has got structures, their usage and translation from Russian into English. Students start off with defining the subject, then are taught when have and has are ...
The pupils get a grid and a list with infinitives. They have to look for the past simple or the past participle of those infinitives in the grid. That way, they really have to think about the irre ...
Instead of just having a filling in exercise, I would have the sentences with blanks and sts would need to find the verbs in the puzzle. List of words used in this word search: DID, ATE, LISTENED ...
This is a quiz containing four tasks that are about : 1- Months of the year: unscramble letters.. 2- Complete a very simple dialogue about birthdays. 3- A multiple choice exercise on expressing op ...
Form and use of the past continuous followed by three different tasks: A) Imagine you arrived at the Hotel yesterday at 3 o’clock. What were these people doing? (The picture will help stud ...
A worksheet about the difference between the past simple and the past continuous containing two different tasks: 1. Use the words to complete the sentences. 2. Complete the sentences with the co ...
Worksheet on Present Continuous tense for elementary students, containing a brief explanation and eight different tasks: - write sentences - Write the - ing form of the verbs: - Answer questions ...
This is a PowerPoint Presentation on Past Simple Regular verbs, including great graphics and 45 different Regular verbs. Students have to click on the picture to read the Past simple form of the ...
Reading comprehension on School subjects and Present Simple. Students read the short text which is very simple and suitable for beginners and then do two different exercises:
- Say if the ...
Here you can find a worksheet is to practice forms of some basic irregular verbs. It's good for elementary students, as well as for beginers or pre-intermediate learners.
This worksheet is to practice forms of some basic irregular verbs. It will be useful for elementary students, as well as for beginners or pre-intermediate learners. Unfortunately, there are only ...
Simple worksheet containing three exercises to practice expressing likes and dislikes. It might also be useful to review the use of the Affirmative, Negative and Interrogative forms of the Simple ...
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