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!
Create awesome-looking custom word searches in seconds!
Make A Word Scramble:
Instantly create custom word/sentence scrambles for your class!
Make A Double Puzzle:
Generate double puzzles your students will love - hours of fun!
ESL Articles
View our latest knowledgebase articles that will help you become a better English teacher. Learn from
professional teachers and put a bit of your own creativity into it!
This is a very simple story where the key nouns are pictures. Students have to read the story by identifying them. There are some questions about the story as well. On the 2nd page you can find th ...
This activity is designed for students of all ages in Elementary to Intermediate level classes. This worksheet is used to help students practice making information questions in the Present Simple ...
This worksheet presents 4 short texts to practice "there is". It also introduces pretty basic vocabulary about things in the house. Students should work in pairs: first student reads his/her text, ...
This PPT will help you to introduce some new vocabulary about everyday things we do. Your SS can work in a felt-tip pen regime and make some sentences about themselves or others. It can be used fo ...
A reading comprehension text with questions intended to first year learners in Algeria. It includes comprehension; text exploration and writing. I hope it would be useful.
This worksheet contains a short "complete the verbs" activity. Then, students are going to listen to the song and complete with the verbs given. It's a bit challenging but they enjoy it. Depending ...
Speaking activity with famous people, that requires the use of the past of verb to be, especially. There are some famous people from the U.S. and from Brazil. If the students are not from Brazil, ...
This is a worksheet for teaching Christmas related vocabulary and the past simple tense. There's a brief explanation at the top of the page followed by 2 activities in which students are asked to ...
In this worksheet you will find a test on irregular verbs used in English. Two of the three forms of irregular verbs are missing and the student has to fill them in. This test could also be used a ...
In this worksheet you will find the main rules of four tenses used in the English language - Present Simple, Present Continuous Past Simple and Past Continuous. You could use this worksheet as a h ...
In this worksheet you can find 13 short exercises concerning the use of Present simple, prepositions (at, on, in, under, next to, etc.), all kinds of pronouns, articles, etc. This worksheet could ...
This worksheet was created to revise the use of the present continuous tense. There are a few pictures and you can see a box with sentences that students have to complete using the verbs in bracke ...
This is a reading worksheet with an element of discussion. It is based on the end of the world theory for 21 December 2012. The students get a chance to voice their own opinion about the matter. A ...
A worksheet that provides practice of Present Perfect use with since and for. The presentation is thematic, devoted to London landmarks. Each slide is made up of one set of words, a picture and tw ...
Students should have some knowledge about question words and the present simple tense before doing this activity. Watch the film and then give this worksheet as take home homework. I do one film ...
Following Richard Williams' animated version of 'A Christmas Carol' these two level worksheets focus on the comprehension of the story. For the basic level, students are presented with multiple ch ...
Students have a perfect example of present simple sentences in the affirmative, negative and interrogative form. They have to read the sentences and then underline the uses of the present simple ...
This is a worksheet contrasting the past simple and the past progressive tense for elementary students. There are 3 easy activities in which students are asked to fill in the blank spaces with th ...
This ppt has a number of art pieces that can be printed out and posted around the classroom. On the last page is a survey that the students can fill out as they browse. The vocabulary may need t ...
A set of cards with vocabulary concerning hobbies and interests (including verbs like, love, enjoy, prefer). You can use them in different ways: 1) As a simple exercise: students make sentences co ...
To practice the use of "have got" and "has got" with elementary students after explaining the verb "have got". I used it with my pupils as a test. It contains two exercises, in the first one they ...
Oral activity in which students have to explain what they see in the picture they have in their worksheets. There are two different worksheets, and they will also be expected to ask their partners ...
This worksheet is for revision purposes. It covers the following tenses: Future time clauses, Past simple, past perfect simple and past perfect continuous, Present Perfect and modals, present con ...
First irregular verbs guide. Can be used as a poster or a bookmark. The most essential verbs are divided into logical and helpful groups so that they're easier to remember. There's a place for tra ...
This is a simple and easy worksheet for revising the future simple at elementary level. Students are asked to fill in blank spaces with will, ‘ll or won’t . The worksheet is available ...
13 19,276ElemPre-Int
Got a great worksheet on
Verb Tense Worksheets?
Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!