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!
Create awesome-looking custom word searches in seconds!
Make A Word Scramble:
Instantly create custom word/sentence scrambles for your class!
Make A Double Puzzle:
Generate double puzzles your students will love - hours of fun!
ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
This simple matching exercise is based on an old but superb coursebook, New Cambridge English Course 2. It can be used either as a warmer or a follow-up when presenting Conditional 1 to your stude ...
This worksheet is about the contrast between simple present and present continuous. Students are going to complete sentences using the present simple of the verbs. Also they are going to complete ...
Easy exercise to practice the Present Continuous tense. In this task each student will be asked first to match the pictures with the words which describe the pictures. In the second part of the ex ...
This worksheet is aimed at practising Present Simple and family relations. The worksheet consists of a written text and 5 exercises to the text. This worksheet is aimed at children between 9 and 1 ...
Here you have a tense worksheet of the present simple form. You have a box with the rules + examples of how to use the present simple of the verbs: to be, have got and also with the rest of the v ...
This is a worksheet with a picture about the Green family. Underneath the picture there is a text. Pupils read the text and try to form question word questions with present continuous in them for ...
Here's a simple explanation of construction + examples of the Present Simple tense. The explanation is written in Polish so it may be helpful for Polish teachers... just to explain what's going on ...
Past Simple test for Elementary and Pre-Intermediate learners.
Example activities:
Complete the sentences with the verbs from the box, turn the questions into negative statements, write the prev ...
It´s the second part of my Present Simple vs Present Continuous WS - here you´ll find only the multiple choice practice. B&W is included. Hope you like it and find it useful.
A simple WS for elementary students. There is some grammar explanation of the use of these two tenses followed by a multiple choice practice. I hope you like it and find it useful. It's only the f ...
This worksheet clearly explains the 4 spelling rules for adding -ing to verbs and provides practice. While the narrative portions may be too advanced for beginners, the simple formulas and exampl ...
This is a worksheet about the popular TV series "How I Met Your Mother" - Season 2, episode 17. As the episode is full of flashback scenes, it's very useful for talking about past events. It encou ...
This PPT clearly explains the 4 spelling rules for adding -ed to verbs and provides practice. While the narrative portions may be too advanced for beginners, the simple formulas and examples make ...
This worksheet clearly explains the 4 spelling rules for adding -ed to verbs and provides practice. While the narrative portions may be too advanced for beginners, the simple formulas and example ...
This worksheet is aimed at practising present simple, mostly in affirmative sentences. The worksheet consists of 5 exercises. Exercise 1 deals with filling in the gaps with the correct forms of ve ...
This is a training card for pupils who know already the difference between using present simple and present continuous. The teacher prints the card and the learners write the correct answers.
Some exercises to practise past simple and continuous. Could be used in the classroom or given as a homework assignment. It's completely editable, so you may adapt it to meet your needs. In the fi ...
Useful to test the correct use of past simple and past continuous tenses. Contains a text, comprehension questions, grammar exercises and a paragraph writing activity.This reading comprehension te ...
This one of my favourite songs from the 90s, despite it being from a boy band. The song is slow and the words clearly sung, so useful for a fun esl class. Here's my lesson plan: 1. Hand out the w ...
This is an activity based on a scene of Harry Potter 5. I prepared to my students to test Simple Future. There are textual comprehension questions, too. The vocabulary it contains is quite easy, ...
Worksheet on the song "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" (by Bryan Adams). A beautiful romantic song will help you introduce Present Perfect. It also deals with feelings and senses. It suits eld ...
The worksheet contains 6 exercises. Exercise 1 and Exercise 2 are about adding the -ing form to some verbs. Exercise 3 and Exrcise 4 deal with making the short and long forms of verbs in some sent ...
This is a song worksheet that can be used to practice Past Simple Tense in context. Students should relate some pictures to sentences previously written so as to visualize the situation before rea ...
This worksheet helps you revise the past simple tense by combining the grammar activity with a guessing game about celebrities who are dead. A) in a first step you introduce a celebrity step by st ...
12 22,317Pre-Int
Got a great worksheet on
Verb Tense Worksheets?
Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!