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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This worksheet uses present progressive and clothing vocabulary. The communicative purpose is to describe what other people are wearing if students lose a friend or family member in an English spe ...
I have created this worksheet to compare the basic use of all the twelve tenses. A simple phrase of "writing emails" has been used in each tense. At the same time, a simple timeline is provided fo ...
This fun video activity is to practise using the simple present tense when describing daily routines. The video shows the daily routine of a Stormtrooper. While watching the video, learners are as ...
This fun video activity is to practise using various narrative tenses, including past simple, past continuous, and past perfect. The video has many clips of accidents, slips, and falls. Learners s ...
This fun video activity is to practise future predictions. While watching a clip from the hit TV series Family Guy, learners have to make predictions about what they expect to happen next. Learner ...
This song worksheet is a listening practice for there is/ there are and simple vocabulary. Students don't only fill in the gaps but also get a general idea by matching half lines and ordering them ...
This typical format is based on practicing the present simple tense focused on daily routines, likes and hobbies. There are 10 different cards, each one with two facts to find out. I think that a ...
This worksheet is appropriate for young learners. It's suitable for reviewing food related vocabulary items. And it's also useful for practicing simple present, count and non-count nouns ...
This worksheet is useful for asking and reviewing job vocabulary items and different kinds of occupations. It's also suitable for practicing the simple present tense. This worksheet is appropriate ...
I use this activity for warming up or as a team competition game. It is very fast, it will not take you more than five minutes. I read aloud a line by line and students try to be fast completing t ...
This worksheet is helpful for improving students' writing skills, and it's appropriate for practicing simple present. Students should start each sentence with "there is" or "there are". It's ...
Expressing how we feel using the verb to be and to feel, i.e. I am cold, I feel cold. Teacher reads the sentence showing the picture that goes with it. There are two different gap fill activities ...
This activity is nice to be used as a warmer to practice the simple present tense. Students roll the dice and fill in the blanks with true sentences about themselves. I used the verbs have, like a ...
A worksheet about the construction of the past simple and past simple negative, both with "didn't" and "weren't / wasn't". Provides examples and explanation of forming the past negative with "didn ...
I have designed this PDF for reviewing some toy items + first, second, and third person singular and plural. Students are asked to unscramble the words to make questions and answer them. Hope it w ...
In this worksheet students write the past tense of some verbs and complete Malala Yousafzai´s biography using the verbs. There are also some reading comprehension questions and the opp ...
It is a worksheet for reviewing morning habits and particularly practicing the third person singular. Put the students into groups of three and have them tell their partners about morning ha ...
I have designed this PDF for a speaking practice about habitual activities. Put the students into pairs or small groups and have them talk about their daily routines. It is designed for different ...
I have designed this worksheet about animals for reviewing the third person singular and third person plural (do and does) for the elementary level. Also, it includes the grammar of can and c ...
This worksheet has been designed for young learners who have learnt basic vocabulary and they are now learning the use of there is and there are. The worksheet has ten illustrations with the help ...
A test or worksheet for the 8th or 7th grade. It can be suitable for strong 6th grade (ESL class). The questions are multiple choice. The second part of the worksheet or the test includ ...
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