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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There are questions (present simple - to be, to have, daily routines and free time activities). I did it as a revision for my elementary students. I have a book Face2Face elementary with them, so ...
A worksheet about the topic: disease. Polly has been sick and decided to write a letter to a friend. As follow up exercises, students are asked to answer some questions about the text. Then they w ...
I use these two grammar quizzes as a pretest and post-test. Each takes about 10 minutes. The verbs are the same for both tests.The quizzes can also be used as practice or homework worksheets. The ...
This presentation is for complete beginners or elementary students. It will help to use the question Who's this? The presentation contains the pictures of different cartoon characters. Children ar ...
A powerpoint presentation to practice present continuous with children. children choose a verb and then have to choose the correct answer to a question. I have chosen to give a choice between rig ...
The children will shed tears over a breathtaking animation film about a girl Sintel and her pet dragon, besides they brush up their Present Simple. Also they are suggested to make up an alternativ ...
This is a worksheet for teaching the differences between will and going to. Recommended for pre-intermediate students who are asked to fill in the blanks with going to or will and match sentences ...
A powerpoint presentation teaching verb tenses in a colourful way for movers or starters. I usually use a section at a time, sometimes to teach a new tense and sometimes before introducing questi ...
This worksheet will allow your students to practice the structures: I'm... / My name is/ I'm from... After working with the first ex., they can talk about themselves. Then they have a short , fun ...
Reading activity to check student´s understanding about routines . This worksheet helps you to practise reading skills and reading comprehension . Besides it helps you to increase students v ...
A worksheet prepared for pre-intermediate and intermediate students. It's a reading comprehension about a famous ship, The Mary Rose. The part of the worksheet has been created for a test at a pri ...
This worksheet can be used to reinforce and practice simple present and present progressive as well as daily activities and routines. It contains pictures of routines with the vocabulary and stude ...
This is a simple 2-page worksheet for revising the affirmative form of the present simple tense. Ther's a brief explantion at the top of the page followed by six different activities. Recommended ...
This is a 2-page worksheet for teaching the present perfect tense. Recommended for pre-intermediate students who are asked to fill in the gaps with for or since, choose the correct answer, comple ...
This is a 2-page worksheet contrasting the past simple and the past continuous tense. Recommended for elementary students who are asked to look at the picture and write sentences, correct mistake ...
This is a hit song by Gotye . The worksheet contains a gap filling activity with the lyrics and simple past, reordering the lines and correcting mistakes. The video can be found on You Tube with a ...
This is to show the rules and structure of simple present tense to your students. There are many students that don't understand how to utilize 'do' and 'does' and the reasons why you need an auxil ...
This worksheet has a story about a lorry driver and his everyday life. Studens get to know about the other people's life, their habbits and duties.There are 3 tasks: for reading, for speaking and ...
Team writing. Use the pictures and write a story "Happy to be alive". Make a plan, think about linking words. Use past tenses. Don't forget to use : first, then,after that, next, just then, finall ...
This is a comparative presentation of Present Continuous and Present Simple expressing the Future. I hope you will find it handy when teaching those two. I also compared Present Continuous with Go ...
This three-page worksheet explains the tradition of making New Year's resolutions. It also introduces the grammatical structure for making promising using "will". There are plenty of examples and ...
The song will help you practice some useful expressions along with grammar issues such as Present Simple and Present Continuous. It's very beautiful and you can enjoy watching video and provoke di ...
It is a multiple-choice test of grammar and vocabulary for 12-14 year old ESL learners. It tests Present Continuous, Present Perfect, Articles: a,an, the, some, zero article; Direct/Indirect speec ...
Students love music, it's a great source for teachers to connect to their feelings and experiences. I've designed a lesson plan using this famous singer profile. Adele´s story can inspire a ...
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