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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A simple worksheet to practice present & past simple of the verbs to BE, CAN and HAVE. I gave it as a test but it could be used a worksheet or homework assignment. It's fully editable so feel ...
A grammar worksheet with some exercises for consolidation of past simple and continuous. Students have to inflect some verbs and to fill in the correct forms of past simple or continuous. Could be ...
This is a worksheet about various topics: Past Simple, may/might, Zero Conditional and First Conditional. Useful for exams and quizzes of all sorts. I hope you enjoy it!
Different exercises to revise the tenses that lower - intermediate students should be able to master. It can be used as a diagnostic test at the beginning of a course or at the end of a school yea ...
You can use it to Present Tenses. There are different activities for Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous. There are 2 tenses compared/contrasted wh ...
There was an accident in Vere Street yesterday. Tell your partner what Helen, Jenny and Paul were doing when the accident happened. Listen to your partner. Find out what Bill, Tim and Sandra were ...
Tell your partner what happened in your pictures, using the past simple. Listen to your partner's part of the story and write notes. Work with your partner. Think of an ending for a story. [ ...
Describe Vince, Mary and Frank. Listen to your partner describe Rosa, Louise and Richard. For each person, find at least one difference between your picture and your partner's picture. Perfect to ...
Look at this picture of what was happening at 4.30 yesterday afternoon. Write at least five questions about the scene in the past continuous. Then swap your picture with your partner. After two mi ...
Another simple and easy to read text suitable for elementary/pre-intermediate level. Some vocabulary, grammar and comprehension tasks are included (2 pages). In vocabulary section, students have t ...
A very nice reading passage for pre-intermediate levels. I've enjoyed a lot making this worksheet and included many comprehension exercises(4 pages). So, I really hope you like it.
It has: 1) a v ...
Simple Present and Present Continuous practice. Just complete the spaces with the verbs given in the box. Complete the spaces using the correct structure (simple present & present continuous) ...
This PDF file has plenty of information you can use when introducing the Present Continuous to your students. The PDF contains information regarding form, uses, spelling, state verbs, and time exp ...
This PDF file has plenty of information you can use when introducing the Present Simple to your students. The PDF contains information regarding form, uses, spelling, pronunciation, and time expre ...
This PDF file has plenty of information you can use when introducing the Present Continuous to your students. The PDF contains information regarding form, uses, spelling, state verbs, and time exp ...
This PDF file has plenty of information you can use when introducing the Present Simple to your students. The PDF contains information regarding form, uses, spelling, pronunciation, and time expre ...
At first I prepared this worksheet for teaching past form of the verbs, regular or irregular. later on, I realized the vocabulary potential of the song, so I make use of the vocabulary as much as ...
This test can check the receptive and productive skills of "to be " verb forms and meanwhile it tests the lexis of jobs and adjectives. Unit 1& 2 of Essential Grammar in Use are taken for bas ...
All students have to, fortunately for us - teachers, study. But not every student likes revising. Here, I present some exercises to revise and refresh your knowledge. It can be used both in the c ...
Song cloze: Luka Discussion on child abuse. Child abuse is one of the most dramatic things that happens in our lives, abusing children has become normal in some countries. Kids are defenseless and ...
This worksheet allows students to distinguish time expressions used with the present simple and time expressions used with the present continuous. This worksheet could be used to test students' p ...
For the very first lessons. Creating the code of conduct together with the students in an unusual way. Moreover you can present bits and pieces of Present Simple Tense using just this worksheet. C ...
It's an interesting way to practice animals vocabulary. This material may be used while introducing new lexical units or at a point of checking. You will definitely need an OHP or a laptop to demo ...
This worksheet is designed for complete beginners or elementary students. Grammar: There is, there are, how many, how much, prepositions od place (in, on, at, between, etc). Vocabulary: color, num ...
This is a test with questions about the verb 'to be' (present tense), personal pronouns and Halloween vocabulary. In the Halloween exercise, the students look at the pictures and put the names of ...
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