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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This is a worksheet for revising present continuous at pre-intermediate level. There are 4 different activities in which students are asked to complete the sentences using the present contin ...
This is a worksheet for predicting the future with will, may and won't at elementary and intermediate level. Pupils have to fill in the gaps with will, may or won't. Then they can share it with th ...
In this present simple revision battleship game students will have to use everything they know of this tense form. They will have to make up affirmative, interrogative and negative sentences, use ...
This is a classical battleship game for present perfect continuous. Students ask each other questions according to what is written on both sides of the board. If their 'shot' is successful, they a ...
This worksheet presents three exercises using there is/there are and some prepositions of place such as opposite, between, next to, far from. Students have to use positive, negative and interrogat ...
Road Runner and Wile E Coyote series will be interesting not only for kids but also for adults. This worksheet takes up Just Plane Beep episode and examines past simple. Before watching I would s ...
I designed this power point activity to revise and practise simple past, especially regular verbs, though I included verb to be as well. Students answer the questions using the images and simple ...
Song activity in which students have to fill in the gaps. The song has a nice message about bravery and what it means to be brave. It's all in the present simple. This activity focuses on this ten ...
A simple PowerPoint about Mary's bedroom. Students take a look at the image then should be able to tick the correct answer using the verb "have got". The ppt can be used to study house/objects and ...
This is a 2-page worksheet for revising past tenses: past simple, past continuous and past perfect. Recommended for intermediate students who are asked to choose the correct option, choose the cor ...
This is a 2-page worksheet for revising present tenses: present simple, present continuous and present perfect at intermediate level. There are 3 activities in which students are asked to fil ...
A very simple worksheet which can be used with elementary or pre-intermediate students when revising questions. Involves present simple, present continuous, past simple, have/has got, can, there i ...
Hong Kong Secondary 1 Worksheet . Look at the picture below. You are going to write a passage in not less than 300 words ,describing what you saw one day in a MacDuck’s Fast Food shop. Remem ...
This is a worksheet for revising the differences between the past simple and past continuous tense at pre-intermediate level. There are 3 different activities in which students are asked to c ...
Hi. This is a power point file that I made to encourage students to practise past continuous. It is basically a sequence of pictures that work as prompts for speaking practice. It is a short activ ...
It's a test for my ss at highschool, they learn English as a foreign language, their command is not good at all. I tried to check the use of Simple Present, food, clothes, sports. I'ts done to che ...
Teaching grammar through speaking is one of the most difficult things to do for a teacher. With this worksheet you will be able to help your students use time adverbs such as already/yet/since/ago ...
This is a song by an Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia. The aim of it is to practice irregular verbs of different forms: infinitive, past simple and past participle. The lyrics are quite c ...
The title of this worksheet is 'Picture sentences - Chores'. This resource has five different pictures to look at, and each picture shows a person doing a chore. Students must look at the pictures ...
This worksheet is ideal as a first lesson back after the Christmas / New Year holiday. Your students will have the opportunity to talk in English about their holiday, and review the Past Simp ...
This song by Madonna is a great way to exemplify one of the most problematic structures for elementary students ‘there is/are’. It also will be quite easy to work with the lyrics as i ...
This PPT is for kids who are going to have fun studying the topic. I think when a kid learns something he'she can make his/her own resources with our guidance. Let's help them create their own ma ...
Powerpoint aimed to help students understand or reinforce the use of present perfect as well the difference between since and for. Be aware that I just got it from Busy Teahcer.org and edite ...
Powerpoint on how to form the present continous and an idea on how to make it fun for kids or adults to use. Slide 3 explains that you have to give the students a piece of paper with an action on ...
Students are asked how to form the future. Then they have to look at verbs and pictures and make sentences. This is best done in pairs to encourage speaking. Sentences can also be written down ...
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