4,456 FREE Verb Tense Worksheets Worksheets
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FREE Verb Tense Worksheets

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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Past Tense Presentation

Past Tense Presentation

These slides show the differences between tenses and how they are formed and used. Past simple, past continuous, present perfect. The last slide of the presentations contains an exercise on findin ...
6 Views 15,575 Pre-Int
Jeopardy (New Matrix Intermediate)

Jeopardy (New Matrix Intermediate)

This is Jeopardy-style presentation based on the New Matrix course book for Intermediate ESL learners. Themes: Body language, Present Perfect / Present Perfect Continuous / American vs. British E ...
9 Views 14,474 Int
Verb Tenses Revision

Verb Tenses Revision

This worksheet is about distinguishing present simple, present continuous, simple past, and going to. It provides students with examples to analyse and to complete with the correct form of the ver ...
7 Views 22,047 Pre-IntInt
Present Continuous

Present Continuous

This worksheet shows the basic form of  present continuous in the affirmative, negative and question form. Students describe a picture of a park scene using present continuous. Later they pra ...
4 Views 12,737 Elem
Irregular Verbs- Revision (Base Form, Past Simple, Past Participle)

Irregular Verbs- Revision (Base Form, Past Simple, Past Participle)

The aim of this worksheet is for the students to write and recognize past simple and the past participle of some irregular verbs. There are 4 exercises in which 35 irregular verbs are tested.This ...
8 Views 25,354 Elem
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April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day

This task is for April Fool's Day. It is a funny worksheet. Students must write about their future plans. They must use "be going to". Be careful about reading because all the sentences are writte ...
11 Views 40,935 Beg
Simple Present Interview

Simple Present Interview

This worksheet is a simple but useful interview that can be used to review simple present. Sts have to use the clues to make complete and correct sentences using the structure. They can work in pa ...
6 Views 25,031 Elem
Irregular Past Tense Verbs

Irregular Past Tense Verbs

These worksheets are a great way for students to learn all of the past tense verbs as well as when to use either the past form or the infinitive. Translations are provided in Portuguese but can be ...
3 Views 12,888 ElemPre-IntInt
My Family's Eating Habits

My Family's Eating Habits

This is a writing task about a family's eating habits. It is divided into 4 short paragraphs which analyse what the family eats during the day. It mainly practises present simple, its time express ...
7 Views 60,773 BegElem
Present Perfect Simple - Pantomime

Present Perfect Simple - Pantomime

This worksheet can be used to practice the present perfect simple tense. The cards are cut out and the students should mime the activities on the cards. The other students should guess and make co ...
10 Views 31,549 BegElemPre-Int
Song Worksheet: Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion

Song Worksheet: Because You Loved Me by Celine Dion

Students must put all the verbs given into their right past form. So they listen to the music and check their mistakes.Teacher could play it first, then give the sheet to be completed by students ...
3 Views 21,698 Pre-IntIntAdv
Peter's Favourite Things

Peter's Favourite Things

The transition from present simple to past simple is made easier in a way that children can relate to. Using simple, everyday activities in a child-friendly format, this worksheet is suitable for ...
8 Views 10,929 ElemPre-Int
Song Worksheet: Don't Stop Me Now

Song Worksheet: Don't Stop Me Now

This one works well with pre-intermediate students. Students must listen to the music and put the strips in the right order. Let them listen to the music first, then give a set of strips to the gr ...
13 Views 19,484 Pre-IntIntAdv
Likes

Likes

Students are given a card with the name of a country and a hobby. These cards are on the second page of the worksheet and can be laminated or just printed and cut on cardboard. They ask and answer ...
6 Views 29,528 BegElem
The Present Perfect Tense Activity

The Present Perfect Tense Activity

This bingo-like activity deals with the present perfect tense in a communicative way, using the communicative approach. The learners are supposed to glean signatures from those pupils who have don ...
5 Views 27,294 ElemPre-IntIntAdv
The Wooden Bowl

The Wooden Bowl

This is an inspirational story. It teaches young generations to appreciate older ones. It deals with family relationships , emotions and the necessity to support and to love elderly people .The p ...
5 Views 9,823 All
Housework and Household Chores

Housework and Household Chores

This worksheet can be used for teaching the topic “Housework and Household Chores”. In Exercise 1 students are asked to match 16 household chores with the pictures. In Exercise 2 they ...
20 Views 52,552 ElemPre-Int
Present Perfect: Forms, Uses and Time Expressions

Present Perfect: Forms, Uses and Time Expressions

The present perfect worksheet makes it clearer and easier for students to distinguish between the different forms, uses and time expressions of the present perfect tense. Each part in this workshe ...
7 Views 15,307 Elem
Wh-Questions with Simple Present

Wh-Questions with Simple Present

This document asks students to write sentences using wh-questions with the simple present tense in order to clarify the usage of the third person singular. The document can be used as a test to ch ...
9 Views 42,437 Pre-Int
Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers

Simple board game to practice elementary wh-questions such as "What's your name? How old are you? Where are you from" and yes/no questions with 'be'. The students are supposed to put the sentence ...
31 Views 150,564 BegElem
Present Continuous

Present Continuous

Beginner introduction to present continuous. Grammar explanation: use, formula, examples and keywords. Perfect for basic and beginner levels, for it explains in a most clear way the tense without ...
7 Views 12,883 BegElem
Present Continuous Charades

Present Continuous Charades

Cue cards for a charades game that focuses on the use of the present continuous tense. Students randomly choose a cue card from the pile, go to the front of the class and act out what the cue card ...
10 Views 55,027 Pre-Int
Song Worksheet: Heart by Heart by Demi Lovato's (Present Simple)

Song Worksheet: Heart by Heart by Demi Lovato's (Present Simple)

Exercise based on Demi Lovato's song (Heart by heart) in order to practice present simple. In the first exercise the student should complete the gaps with the correct form of the verb in parenthes ...
3 Views 8,906 ElemPre-Int
Housework

Housework

This PPT can be used for teaching or revising vocabulary related to housework and household chores. Students have to look at the picture and choose the correct sentence from the four options. The ...
18 Views 12,781 ElemPre-Int
Song Worksheet: Color of the Wind (Have You Ever?)

Song Worksheet: Color of the Wind (Have You Ever?)

A song worksheet using Colors of the Wind from Disney's Pocahontas as a means to practice listening for verbs and in particular for the past participle form used in 'have you ever?'  This son ...
6 Views 26,033 ElemPre-IntInt

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