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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Use of to be in present and past. Affirmative, negative and interrogative forms. Use of There + Be, present and past forms. We can complete sentences, choose the correct option and write new sente ...
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Presentation containing various pictures from the 19th century. Topics covered: transport, housing, education, shopping, fashion, family, free time. I use this slideshow to practise "used to" and ...
Practise present perfect by asking about your experiences.This is a speaking activity based on the pictures.You have to review the irregular verbs beforehand. The sudents in turns ask and answer q ...
worksheet-school-subjects.docx [3.86 Mb] (Count: 981)This worksheet contains matching activities. Your students are offered to match the pictures (vocabulary : daily routines / school subjects with the expressions/ words). They can ...
Easy song to review present tense, future with going to, and will, with a fill in the gap exercise. Also the use of "gonna" instead of "going to". Students have to look up the meaning of new vocab ...
This is a worksheet to practice story tenses: past simple, past perfect and past continuous. It suits intermediate level. It includes two tasks. The first task includes 5 sentences to be complete ...
A Powerpoint that can be used in class to present present continuous; it features the rules for when to use the tense and how to change a verb into its present continuous form. It shows all verb f ...
A simple discussion activity, similar to the popular worksheet, "What a life". The teacher makes up a strange story about him/herself, and then asks for questions. Then the students take turns at ...
This power-point presentation is appropriate for reviewing clothes related vocabulary items, question formation. It includes different kinds of clothes such as: tie, watch, apron, sweater, pants, ...
Page 1: Reading practice - 259-word article about the history and tradition of Halloween; Page 2: Ten reading comprehension questions; Page 3: Grammar practice - same article but with 12 grammar g ...
With this exercise beginners can make simple sentences with the verb to be. They are positive and negative sentences. It can be handed out to students or it can be projected on the digital blackbo ...
A simple yet useful song worksheet for practicing present simple and present continuous with elementary students. Make your students listen to the song and fill the gaps with the words from the bo ...
This is a one-page past simple worksheet for elementary or pre-intermediate students who need to practice and review this tense. It contains four activities and the verbs included in the activitie ...
This power-point presentation contains some occupations, such as: architect, teacher, artist, etc. It contains subject pronouns (third person) and contractions (he is = he's) and also the use ...
Let Autobot teach you about the simple present tense. Complete board game:1. Board game 2. Game rules 3. Counter 4. Score board. Just download this worksheet, print it and play it.
Teacher instructions: cut out the sheet. The task for the students is to create as many sentences as possible. I have done this in teams of five students. It is also good to make students write do ...
This worksheet is a wordsearch where learners have to find simple words denoting objects they own like laptop, ice skates, magazine, wallet, etc. But instead of the text clues you've got the pictu ...
This is a complete worksheet for grade 7 midterm test. It covers several topics such as simple present tense, present continuous tense, and simple past tense, preposition of time (in, on, at ...
With this game you can practice simple school vocabulary (actions, instructions, telling the time, months, ect.) Students have to answer the questions or follow the instructions. Continue to play ...
General review of preposittions on in and at. Also there is/are and to be in simple present. These pages can be used not only for beginners but also for elementary classes, created to provide rea ...
This exercise was designed as extra practice when I taught verb to be in the past. You can also use to review the same verb. I tried to keep the vocaulary very simple, but if you think some words ...
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