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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People doing different things on the beach. The worksheet is meant to help pupils practsing the past progressive using three forms. the activity can be done as a pair work: Pupil A asks a question ...
Color it! Who says that coloring only appeals to kids? Not at all. Believe it or not, big guys in my class enjoyed doing it while trying to master their grammar lesson on adverbs of frequency. ...
Give your students a very interesting and meaningful reason of bringing their own dictionary in class. Try facilitating this non-conventional dictionary drill. It’s so fun and engaging! Th ...
Diary Entry Template. Great way to make students start using "be going to" for plans and arrangements. You can use it to do some group work. Tell students they've found a page from a famous person ...
This worksheet contains the lyrics of a Maroon 5 song (Fortune Teller). I prepared it for the topic of fortune telling/predictions as a relaxing but still engaging activity. First page: lyrics wit ...
This is a 2-page worksheet for teaching has/have got at elementary level. There are 6 different activities in which students are asked to fill in the blank spaces with has or have got, write nega ...
A detailed description of structuralisation and application of the present simple tense for expressing the present time. It contains simple examples accompanied by detailed descriptions; the docum ...
It's a simple revision of present and past - simple and continuous, some adjectives, questions and word order. Of great use before starting with the course book. It can also be used as a sort of p ...
Choose-the-correct-option activity with the lyrics of One Woman, the song released by the UN to commemorate the International Women's Day 2013. It provides practise of basic aspects, basically the ...
Speaking activity full of simple present -
1. fill in the missing question word,
2. guess your partner's answers,
3. ask your partner (use question word + do + you +......?),
4. check your gue ...
Hi guys, this worksheet was great in helping my students practise the Past Simple. It also helped them reflect on the importance of making the best of their youth, pondering on choices they make n ...
This is a powerpoint presentation which I made for an effective presentation of the past continuous tense grammar rule. I think it is useful because the presentation of the grammar rule is followe ...
This is a powerpoint presentation which you can simply use to show the distinction between Past Simple and Present Perfect Tense. All you need is a overhead projector! Because it shows one distinc ...
This worksheet provides examples as well as tables for present simple/ continuous, past simple/ continuous, present perfect simple, future simple, and be going to. It provides examples to find th ...
Instructions: In pairs or individually students complete the blanks with verbs in the past tense: HAD, WANTED, DIDN'T, NEEDED, LEFT, COULDN’T, TRIED, GOT. Simple and easy to be used as a war ...
This is a reading comphrension about the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. It contains a short texts and several questions to test comphrension. The language level is quite simple, ...
This is an easy guided writing activity for students who are studying the past tense. The purpose is to help them write a whole text in English, as they often lack confidence and/or have no idea w ...
This is a worksheet for revising the differences between the present simple and the present continuous tense at elementary level. Students are asked to underline the correct form o f the verbs, p ...
I use this worksheet to help student practice the difference between the present perfect and simple past. Activity 1: Speaking Activity. I cut up part 1 and 2, and just pass out 1. a) First I ...
This worksheet has listening comprehension exercises. It could be used for practising types of films or introducing the topic of films. I used this worksheet with pre-intermediate students as a wa ...
This file is a complete review for student (Elementary Level): Verb to be, Present Simple, Present Progressive, Past Simple and Future, with exercises. This review was done for elementary student ...
Exercises about going to - will - present continuous Students just have to answer the questions and then they correct their sheet with the teacher. Students can work in groups.
Listen to the song Billy Jean and fill the gaps. An alltime classic! Enjoy. One activity that can be done before giving out the worksheets is on a piece of paper get the students to write down any ...
The worksheet is a reading comprehension and speaking exercise based on the lyrics. It starts by talking about how people used to keep pictures in places like their wallets or in a locket necklace ...
It's a song for practising Present Simple, including changing sentences into negatives and questions. At first students put given verbs into Present Simple, then listen and check. Later on, they c ...
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