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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It's a worksheet to practise the use of present simple and present continuous. The students have to fill the gaps with the correct tense. It should be used with students of the pre-intermediate or ...
Warmer, revision or cool down to revise the present simple with past simple forms of some verbs. Best used as a group activity. Can be modified to make larger - and the cell size can also be made ...
Pelmanism for reinforcing the present and past forms of some common verb forms. Useful warmer, or cool down. I have used it as a 'test' to see how well the students at elementary level have learnt ...
A simple worksheet including diagrams which contrast present perfect and simple past. Only a few exercises, but something that can be easily modified to suit your needs. Includes only regular ver ...
This is a writing activity to practice simple present third person singular. After a short warm up reading, the students are invited to write about a day in the life of Dracula. It's a fun way to ...
This is an interesting questionaire to practice present simple, it contains multiple choise exercises and a writing exercise. Sometimes, we can not find exercises which involve real con ...
We have many ABC flashcards but not so many for have got. I found that my students really wanted some flashcards for the verb "have got" and they really liked these ones so I hope your studen ...
This power point slides are suitable for beginners.This can be used to teach the simple present tense and have/has, countries and nationalities, age, profession (personal information). Students de ...
This film is based on the early business life of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. I watched this movie in class with special focus on I.T. In this activity they have different sentences about Jobs and G ...
Here is a worksheet for practising the verbs 'to be' and 'have got'. It is good for begginer or elementary students. The tasks are to complete sentences with correct forms of the two verbs. It als ...
This is a short Halloween story for revising the past simple tense at elementary level. Students are asked to fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs in brackets. The answe ...
A present simple worksheet practicing the third person. Easy and fun. Students can practice writing about their partner or family member using the same format. My students really enjoyed doing thi ...
Have you ever seen any Tim Burton films, such as Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow or Alice in Wonderland? Vincent is the first creation of the praised film-director. It is the story of a 7 year ...
In this worksheet you have the description of Lisa Simpson's daily routines. The students have to draw the clock's hands according to the sentences and then complete their own daily routine. I thi ...
This worksheet is for students who want to practice and revise tenses. It contains exercises related to past and present tenses and will help students enhance their knowledge of the simple, ...
This is a worksheet for revising the past simple tense at elementary level. There are 4 different exercises in which students are asked to write past simple of the verbs given, change the se ...
This worksheet was designed to practice simple past and to have fun. There are pre-teaching exercises, such as vocabulary revision and introducing new vocabulary and revision of past forms. There ...
This game works exactly the same as the other Battleships Questions Game - except that instead of practising 'Do you have/Have you got' question and answers, the students are practising present an ...
Hello everyone! If you like telling stories and you are teaching the present simple tense, I think you will like this story and the activities. First, tell the story using the pictures, mimics and ...
It's a simplified version of "Cluedo" board game to practise past simple and past continuous. The teacher sets the scene of the murder case and divides the students in groups. One group takes the ...
It's a short test for intermediate students checking some past forms of some irregular verbs. It's made for those who have no time to prepare it. Students can write their name at the top of the pa ...
First students practice verb tenses and then third conditional by watching the scene in "The curious case of Benjamin Button" called "the accident scene" and describe how the accident (the outcom ...
Powerpoint to practice past simple. Students must find the questions and answers about past holidays. Oral activity with pronunciation, the Ipa font will be useful to have the Engl ...
This is a matching activity for teaching or revising daily routines related vocabulary. Recommended for elementary students who are asked to match the words / expressions given with the pictures.T ...
It is a very fun reading. You can do it in class as a warm up for other endagered animals or folk tales.It is very useful also to evaluate reading comprehension. I used it with my third graders as ...
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