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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Easy worksheet for the youngest students. Perfect to practise verb 'to be' and basic adjectives. The worksheet contain 5 simple tasks for kids who just have started studying English with a tutor, ...
"Pothound" is a great, short film by Trinidadian filmmaker, Christopher Guinness. You can watch it here: https://vimeo.com/32823310. I used this worksheet with intermediate ESL students in a Japan ...
This worksheet is designed to help ESL learners to describe their daily routines. It is observed that the ESL learners are unable to share their routines with peer group. Most of them trying to re ...
This worksheet is for primary/elementary students. It’s is a contraction for it is or it has: It’s my bedtime. Its indicates possessive: The choir is proud of its performance. Write it ...
It’s is a contraction for it is or it has: It’s my bedtime. Its indicates possessive: The choir is proud of its performance. Students are asked to write it’s or its to complete t ...
It’s is a contraction for it is or it has: It’s my bedtime. Its indicates possessive: The choir is proud of its performance. Students are asked to write it’s or its to complete t ...
It is a listening activity based on Jesse Winchester's song. I happened to listen to it on the radio and I thought it was great for revising verbs in the present simple tense form. I used it with ...
This is a four-page worksheet for present simple and present continuous. It includes different activities and it is designed for elementary level. Hope it helps!
This power-point presentation is helpful to teach present perfect vs past simple and also present perfect with for and since and make questions with how long. It's appropriate for pre-intermediate ...
In this worksheet you'll find a present perfect (with for and since) activity. Print the worksheet and give them 10 minutes to choose the best answer, then give them some time to check the answers ...
This is a worksheet for practicing past simple. The students are asked to read a text and answer or write the questions. It is designed for elementary level. Hope it works!
Listening activity for the song I don't wanna miss a thing by Aerosmith. Choose the correct word in bold and in capital letters from the lyrics already provided. There are some words to choos ...
An activity for September for year 9/8th grade/4ème. Students learn how to speak about their summer holidays. They have to find the missing words, and then they can interview a classmate, t ...
In this worksheet you'll find 5 activities to learn and practice present simple questions. At the beginning there are examples of yes/no questions and wh questions. Then, students identify differe ...
This worksheet helps students create questions with the verb to be. They can interview 5 of their classmates, they will pretend they are from another country. This encourage students to create que ...
This power-point presentation is appropriate as an engagement for teaching and practicing expressions of frequency such as : everyday, once a week, twice a week, three times a week and etc. I ...
This power-point presentation is appropriate for teaching daily routines and weekdays to young and elementary language learners. It contains activities such as: sweeping, washing the dishes, takin ...
A listening set of exercises based on the Song "Baby Love" (2015). This activity includes ordering sentences, discriminating words, correcting spelling and reviewing some gerunds. [youtube=http:// ...
This board game is really useful for reviewing daily activities. It is appropriate for young learners. You copy and cut the cards, write numbers 1-8 on the other side of each card. Pin/ stick them ...
This is a worksheet for practicing Daily Activities. It is designed for elementary level and it includes an activity in which the language learners are asked to look at the pictures and write. Hop ...
This worksheet is designed for elementary students and young learners. It contains two parts, first: school action verbs and present continuous and question formation with "what". Second part: cou ...
This is a PowerPoint about things we wear containing images and a link to a short video which is appropriate for young learners of the English language. You can also use the questions which are ad ...
This board game is really useful for teaching and reviewing school action verbs and present progressive. It is appropriate for young learners, and beginners. You copy and cut them, write a nu ...
I made this worksheet for my Thai elementary students. They are always confused about have got/ has got and how to use them in a sentence. It is pure grammar and I explained affirmative, negative, ...
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