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 is the timeline of the movie The Princess Bride.You can use this to show your students how the movie begins and ends. It is like a summary. It has pictures too. I hope it helps you and your s ...
Ss have to complete the lyrics of the song All about That Bass by Meghan Trainor following the hints given. The blanks are all verbs in present simple or continuous. Then, they can listen to the s ...
This is a PowerPoint for teaching Present Continuous. It is designed for elementary levels and it contains some classroom actions such as listening, talking, writing, coloring, and etc. You may fi ...
This power-point presentation is appropriate for elementary students. This file can be used to review present continuous (positive and negative forms). It contains three parts, first is gap fillin ...
This worksheet contains a short biography of Josh Radnor. The grammar focuses on simple past and it is appropriate for elementary levels. It includes a gap-filling activity. You may find it useful ...
This is a test for vocabulary and grammar. There is present simple, possessive pronouns and wh- questions exercises. I've prepared this test for my students and it encompasses all the vocabulary a ...
Students pick up a card and use the information on the card to tell the group about a time when they met someone famous. They use the information on the card and their imagination to answer other ...
Short word search that you can use to entertain kids and then a series of questions in which they need to choose whether "like or like to" is appropriate. It is ideal for younger classes and can ...
Daily routines and present simple PPT presentation prepared for a group of beginner adults. I hope you will like it. There are no exercises just a presentation but it doesn't require much explana ...
This worksheet is useful for reviewing and practicing grammar: present continuous and simple present. It contains two parts reading comprehension and gaps filling. It is appropriate for elementar ...
This worksheet is appropriate for practicing and reviewing simple present. It contains two parts, first is related to do/does. while second part is related to "the third person", and words ending ...
This activity begins with a question: what does a family member usually do? The teacher has to make a pause and wait for the students to answer. All the slides have animated gifs or pictures as we ...
This worksheet is used for practicing "simple past", why/ because, talking about likes and dislikes, and yes/ no questions. It contains several questions with related pictures, to look a ...
This is a simple worksheet for revising past simple. There are 3 different activities in which students are asked to rewrite the sentences into past simple and rewrite the sentences given in ...
This is a worksheet for teaching or revising the past simple tense ate elementary level. There are 2 different activities in which students are asked to choose the correct option and rewrite the s ...
This worksheet contains an activity in which language learners are asked to write their own murder story using some words and numbers. It is appropriate for elementary and pre-intermediate levels. ...
This PowerPoint contains some games that we do at the park, such as jump rope, skate, fly kites, etc. It also includes nice photos. This PowerPoint is appropriate for elementary levels, particular ...
This is a worksheet based on a Press TV news. It is about an Iranian woman who won Nobel Prize in Mathematics. It contains 4 simple questions. The grammar focuses on past simple. It is appropriate ...
This is a worksheet about New Year's resolutions. There are three activities including reading (Bart Simpson's resolutions), matching and writing. Students learn the vocabulary to talk about their ...
It's a worksheet to use the day after Christmas holidays. There are lots of questions to make your students speak about what they did, what they liked, what presents they got and many more things ...
This is a simple worksheet for practicing past simple. It includes a gap-filling activity in which the language learners are asked to use was, were, wasn't, and weren't. Cut the cards, give the st ...
This worksheet contains parts of Hannibal Rising plot. You can put your students into pairs or small groups, ask them to read the text, and decide on what happened next. The students are supposed ...
This worksheet contains a short story to convey the meaning of the word "whodunnit". First, ask your students to read the story. Then, put them into pairs or small groups and encourage them to tal ...
A song activity based on the famous song of Wham, covered by Taylor Swift. There are several exercises, during listening there are gaps to fill in past tense, multiple choices, then they have to f ...
Hi, this is Umme Kulsum from Pakistan. I prepared the present simple worksheet where I describe three important usages of the tense. Suitable for any level, and I hope it's helpful in unders ...
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