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!
I prepared this worksheet for an elementary teen class (14-15 years old). I tried to make it as clear and comprehensive as posible, so that they could revise the theory as they were doing exercise ...
The worksheet is for beginners. It has two exercises: the first one is a text with questions, the second is to make sentences with given words. You can add words to the second exercise. The worksh ...
Theworksheet with different exercises for past simple of the verb to be. It has 7 exercises: fill in exercises, a text where students have to choose the correct verb, an exercise where they have ...
There is a pre-reading activity to practise vocabulary as well as a gap fill activity for students to do while reading the excerpt from the book The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ ...
These are 25 sentences where you should use the verbs given in brackets in proper tenses. Aimed at practising the difference between present simple and present continuous tenses. It's great to use ...
The objective of the worksheet is to practice 2 tenses: present simple and present progressive. I consider it a good grammar drill. Students have to choose the forms, find mistakes and correct the ...
It is a power point file which gives the students the way to describe animals. Obviously it is suitable for Movers. I mean those who know can/simple present/ have got-has got. I use this kind of d ...
This worksheet includes two activities to practice past simple. First, students are asked to write questions. Then, they are asked to write their own answers. Hope it helps!
This worksheet includes the vocabulary items related to the activities children do at the playground. The grammar focuses on present continuous. It is designed for elementary level. Hope it works!
This worksheet will help you review the numbers, objects, articles and verb to be. It was designed for elementary students. You can use this worksheet after you've taught personal information (nam ...
Students will learn how to change positive sentences into negative or interrogative sentences and vice versa. It is good for beginner levels although sometimes they get confused. It is the subject ...
Colorful worksheet for intermediate and pre-intermediate students. It includes 4 pages: an explanation of the rule and different kinds of exercises (affirmative, interrogative and negative sentenc ...
I created this worksheet in order to give my elementary students some practice of the difference between present simple and present continuous. In the first part of the worksheet there are two sim ...
The primary aim of this task sheet is to improve students' vocabulary on animals (domestic, wild and pets). During solving the tasks, pupils can improve their reading and writing skills as well. T ...
This is an exam designed for pre-intermediate students. They are expected to use related vocab, plus some grammar notions like pressent perfect, future forms, zero/first/second conditionals, compa ...
The worksheet was made for students of the age of 7-13. This winter task will help your students to practice winter vocabulary and revise the present continuous tense, the present perfect tense, ...
This is a powerpoint you can use in class to explain the difference between the present perfect simple and continuous. It shows the rules, how to alter the verbs for both tenses, and example sente ...
I have created these fake identity cards for my class. I think it's a good practice on forming and answering basic questions. Instructions: cut out the cards - you'll have two sets of cards - ...
The word search can be used to learn new vocabulary about the verbs in present continuous, this activity help the students to learn new vocabulary the verbs with ing and how to add ing to each ...
These are exercises for simple present. I´m an English techer in Argentina and the simple present is one of the most difficult tenses to teach. So the exerses will help your students to lear ...
The worksheet is for youmg learners attending a third year of ESL. It aims at facilitating their writing a story by putting in the verbs into the tense and also by using the known vocabulary and i ...
A set of flash cards for daily routines and actions. Put together with clip art and drawings from Google images. The actions are not written on the cards. Can be used for teaching daily acti ...
Step-by-step listening comprehension activity for beginner and elementary students. Listen for details and sequence as you hear. Teachers can use it as an introduction to city vocabulary, transpor ...
This interview is perfect to practise present perfect mixing adverbs used in this tense: just, already, yet, for and since. Throughout the activity, you can check whether your students understand ...
It is always necessary to review the tenses in English , so why not use this time to recap about the tenses and give some cultural background on Thanksgiving. The key is provided as usual. I have ...
3 18,540Int
Got a great worksheet on
Verb Tense Worksheets?
Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!