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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Presentation in Power point on international travel. Introduces new vocabulary and discussion questions as well as short assignments. New vocabulary is introduced at the beginning comprised main ...
This is a sort of summary of grammar and changes in spelling for the third person singular verb forms in the present tense. It has been designed for teenage students who suffer from dyslexia since ...
The file contains a short information about Kharlamov and Malkin to compare present perfect and past simple. I believe it is actual during the present Olympic Games. The information is taken from ...
It's a sentence auction where students bid on correct sentences and try to trick others into buying incorrect sentences. It's a fun and extremely competitive way to review. And it works great if y ...
This exercise is for ESL beginners. Starting from a comic strip about Valentine's Day, the students must write a short narrative in the present simple tense. You might want to first go over the ...
This is a very simple worksheet for teaching or revising past simple. There are 3 different activities in which students are asked to put the sentences given into the simple past , make ...
This is a pretty simple worksheet for teaching the past simple of regular and irregular verbs at elementary level. Students are asked to complete the sentences given with the right form of th ...
The brief history of the Olympics, their origin and revival plus some interesting facts about Games. Good for practicing past simple and revision of sport topic. You can read and discuss it in cl ...
Starting from a dialogue relating the story of Romulus and Remus, your students will be asked to write a simple narrative in the present tenses, based on pictures. This ESL activity was done in re ...
I usually use this worksheet for beginner or elementary EFL students. Target language is vocabulary related to rooms, houses and furniture. Normally the 1st activity is to scan how many rooms ther ...
Starting from the legend of Romulus and Remus, this exercise allows students to revise the use of subject and object pronouns. It offers a drama activity first and then goes back to grammar with t ...
This has been one of my favorite activities since childhood. A group of ss work in a group to create one story. But each time a student writes something, he/she folds the paper so that the others ...
I found topic “Childhood Memories” one of the most heartwarming topics ever. Ss brought their old photos to class and we guessed who is who. Also they took their favorite toys and shar ...
Any kind of “Alibi” game is perfect for practicing past tenses (esp past simple and past continuous). Make up any story that something was stolen at the party at 10 pm last night. You ...
I use this worksheet to discuss important events in the history of mankind with my students. There is information about some of them. They read it and decide how important each event is. They are ...
I use this worksheet to help my students practise telling stories in the past. They have to imagine that something quite unusual has happened to them (they've met a ghost/an alien; won a lottery e ...
This pairwork worksheet uses everyday activities to practice the contrast between present simple and present continuous. This very structured practice is best used with elementary and pre-intermed ...
This summary worksheet is great after watching the film as a pair work activity. Students can practice reading, listening and writing skills with the words and phrases taken from the film, so it' ...
It is an activity sheet about the basic daily routines of people. Famous cartoon characters the Simpsons have been used. It also includes telling the time. Daily routines are revised through a fil ...
A beautiful song on simple past. Teach the past forms of the verbs on the board and ask ss to listen and complete the lyrics using the words. Don't forget to teach the right pronunciation of the w ...
This is a vacation/holiday activity information sheet about Turkey. It includes sightseeing of three Turkish cities, food & drink, and festival and special events in Turkey. It can be used for ...
This is a vacation/holiday activity information sheet about Indonesia. It includes sightseeing of three Indonesian cities, food & drink, and festival and special events in Indonesia. It can be ...
This is a vacation/holiday activity information sheet about India. It includes sightseeing of three Indian cities, food & drink, and festival and special events in India. It can be used for an ...
With the help of this presentation your students can practice the use of the going-to future. In the first part, they see two pictures per slide and have to make a sentence out of them. In the sec ...
A simple overview of how to talk about the future. Going to/will (won't) and present continuous. Timelines show the time of speaking and brief explanations are given as when to use which phrase/ t ...
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