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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Worksheet with two simple activities for beginners to practice verbs and simple yes/no questions using do. You can use this activity to practice short answers or as a filler for a complete beginne ...
Prompt students to develop their writing skills by drawing a sequence of pictures and describing what had happened in each of them. I bet students will find it entertaining and easy to write the s ...
First page of the worksheet: pupils have only to fill in the right version of the present progressive tense (all verbs should be known). Second page: pupils fill in the proper version and ask the ...
This is a fill-in-exercise about the present simple tense or present continuous tense. Pupils must decide which one they use. They find "hints" in nearly every sentence. Please recollect the signa ...
This is a pretty easy worksheet for revising the verb to be at elementary level. There's a brief explanation at the top of the page followed by 3 activities in which students are asked to write qu ...
This is a 2 page worksheet for revising the present simple tense at elementary level. Students are asked to read the text, say if the statements are true or false, answer the questions about the t ...
This is a workssheet in which you can practice the past simple tense with your students through a reading comprehension activity about Bruce Lee's life. It contains a brief biography and three ite ...
In this worksheet, you can find several exercises for to be in the past tense. This worksheet helps learners to understand and simply shows how to express past situations. Excersises are clear and ...
This worksheet is designed for complete beginners or elementary students. Grammar: there is, there are in affirmative sentences. Vocabulary: rooms in the house, furniture. The worksheet ...
In this worksheet, you can find several exercises on past tenses and also, you can find vocabulary - adjectives for describing places. The past tenses are: past simple, past continuous and past si ...
Present tenses practice with vocabulary topic - festivals and holidays. There are some exercises on present tenses and there are some words on festivals and holidays in order to know if students k ...
This is a song worksheet to practice the present perfect tense, students have to complete the lyrics while listen to the song, and then decide if some sentences are true or false according to th ...
This power point presentation is about countries and their peculiarities. Students will be able to practice comparatives, grab bag information and cultural knowledge. It will also be useful for 5 ...
This is an elementary level worksheet I use with my adults learners. This particluar one has a look at countable and uncountable nouns; the use of some, any and a; the past simple tense of regular ...
Worksheet with examples of verb to be past tense. Practice was and were sentences. Useful for kids from 8 to 10 years old. Activities to understand sentences and match with the correct picture. C ...
Provides a simple explanation of past continous ans tpast continous mixed with simple past. Deals with how to use past continous to describe actions happend in a specific time in ...
This is my final test for elementary students this year. It includes grammar, vocabulary, reading and writing. Students are asked to read the text, answer and ask questions, fill in the ...
You can find here useful vocabulary to teach your students "plan" of their day and exercises concerning present simple. Your students can learn how to describe daily routine which can be useful to ...
These are two listenings with the source included about the past simple tense. They mention daily activities in the past. They are reccommended to beginners or false beginners. Ss should write the ...
This is a very esay worksheet to revise have got, families, there is/are and prepositions (in- on- at). Exercises and reading comprehension. Useful as a diagnostic test at the beginning of the yea ...
The worksheet must be used in combination with the short cartoon, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VljJIQuPDSE&feature=kp . Have your ss watch the cartoon and ...
The ws is about The Colossus of Rhodes - one of the world wonders. The rhyme is taken from the net. Students will compare 2 statues, do a quizz, put the verbs in the correct form, solve the crossw ...
Conversation activity that practices the present perfect tense, while also teaching vocabulary associated to extreme sports. Presentation contains an example of how to form the tense as well as pi ...
This worksheet assists students with a basic grammar practice. The exersice can help him understand the passive verb (have/ has) possesive 's and possesive adjective. In addition there is al ...
This is a gap filling exercise for the will future with a mixture of text and dialogue. The students have to distinguish between questions, positive statements and negative statements. The verbs a ...
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