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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Explore Past Simple (Regular and Irregular) verbs by watching this video. Follow the story and answer the questions. It’s a fun quiz and ideal for virtual classes.
Suitable for all ages and complete adult beginners, this booklet discusses present continuous verbs, pronouns, contracted pronouns, nouns and introduces ‘feelings’ to learn s ...
This is a worksheet (8 pages) to practise / review the past simple tense. There are ten exercises: was/were - affirmative, negative and questions – regular and irregular, write sen ...
Write sentences in present perfect using the prompts given. In this exercise, students will be able to correctly write what is happening in each situation using present perfect simple. ...
Students who have a shakey knowledge of active and passive tenses may appreciate this worksheet to help reinforce their practical knowledge and usage - especially with regard to writing ...
Relationship idioms for pre-intermediate and intermediate. There are 3 sub-topics for 3 different situations. Each topic has 4 widely used idioms. Idioms are explained. Let the students guess ...
Instructions:
1. Student receive a set of pictures and must draw items on the left picture using the instructions given by the teacher.
2. Students take turns asking one another "Was there a bea ...
This is a great activity that you can use as a warmer, as a review activity or even as a filler. It can be used in ANY level to practice any tense for affirmative, negative or questions. It's a g ...
This is a great activity that you can use as a warmer, as a review activity or even as a filler. It can be used in ANY level to practice any tense for affirmative, negative or questions. It's a g ...
This is a worksheet to revise the use of these two tenses: past simple and present perfect. There are six different tasks. Positive sentences, negative sentences, and questions. The last ...
This worksheet lets students review past participles, and it gives students the opportunity to practise present perfect with “yet, just, already”. In the first exercise students need ...
This worksheets lets students practise the form and function of the modal verb “will” for predictions, decisions, offers and promises. In the first exercise students match sentences w ...
This is a PowerPoint presentation on Fortnite I made for my young students. They love playing this game, and I designed a presentation with info about the game as well as a vocabulary practice. T ...
Beautifully illustrated flashcards for teaching travel English. This travel-themed set will brighten up the classroom, increase retention and provide an awesome visual learning aid. The flashcard ...
This fun lesson contains a link to an animated video that was made specifically for ESL/EFL students to learn how to form the present simple tense. Extremely fun and contextualized explanations a ...
This worksheet lets students review common irregular verbs and gives them the opportunity to practise the form of present perfect. In the first exercise students complete a table with the past si ...
A super fun and engaging lesson plan with an animated video for students to watch. After watching the video, students complete the questions, grammar and vocabulary activities. A powerful resourc ...
In this lesson, learners will listen to a conversation between Sarah and John. They talk about their morning routines and students are asked to (1) listen for the times, (2) get specific informat ...
Song: Thunder, by Imagine Dragons. Lyrics with gaps to fill with the past simple and the past continuous, mostly the second verb tense. Other questions included about the song's vocabulary and th ...
Practice Simple Past tense with this easy-to-use worksheet. This worksheet was designed for Portuguese native speakers and might contain Portuguese words for further explanation/instructions. Stu ...
This worksheet is useful when working with younger children. It's visual. No words. The idea is to captivate student's interest and work on vocabulary and comprehension activities after watching ...
This worksheets lets students revisit the form of superlatives and their use with present perfect with “ever”. In the first exercise students complete a table with the correct compara ...
This worksheet lets students review the use of present perfect for unspecified time in the past and contrasts it with the use of past simple for a specific point in the past.
In this exe ...
This sheet works best for introducing and eliciting the rules of future tenses (Will, Be going to and Present Continuous) in terms of decisions made on the spot or in the past and plans. Students ...
Activities based on Greta Thunberg's speech at COP24, Katowice, Poland. December 2018. Especially interesting if as a teacher you support 15th of March Students' Global Strike or Fridays for Futu ...
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