4,456 FREE Verb Tense Worksheets Worksheets
BusyTeacher Home » » Verb Tense Worksheets

FREE Verb Tense Worksheets

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!

Filter by Level
NEW
  • Complete Beginner (689)
  • Elementary (2535)
  • Pre-Intermediate (2404)
  • Intermediate (1508)
  • Upper-Intermediate Advanced (606)
  • Exam Level (137)
  • Suitable for All Levels (137)
Clear filters
Filter
Dramatically improve the way you teach:




Make A Word Search:

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
Rate this Category
5 out of 5, rated by 5 teachers




Sort by: Most Recent | Most Viewed | Rating
Song Gap Fill:

Song Gap Fill: "My Girl" by Madness

Tom Leventhall
A lyrics gap fill of the song "My Girl" by the ska band Madness. (See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pw-8AGRcyvk) The song contains a number lines in the past perfect as well as some inte ...
1 Views 22,401 IntAdv
How Harry met Meghan/ Brangelina Love Story

How Harry met Meghan/ Brangelina Love Story

Anastasia
This is a worksheet suitable for Elementary or Pre-Intermediate students who are interested in celebrities and romance. The activity allows students to re-construct the timelines of two love stori ...
1 Views 16,783 ElemPre-Int
Mystery Murder (Past Continuous)

Mystery Murder (Past Continuous)

Fernanda Zamorano Grajale
This activity is an inversed Clue game where SS need to find the person who was murdered, where was he/she murdered and what was he/she doing when it happened using Past Continuous. Suggested card ...
1 Views 81,651 ElemPre-IntInt
Future Forms Fill in the Blank Worksheet

Future Forms Fill in the Blank Worksheet

Jan Farley
This worksheet contains two pages. The first contains a chart illustrating present simple -ing form, will and going to and how these are used to indicating the future. The second page is a pract ...
1 Views 17,595 ElemPre-Int
Past Simple - Making Negatives and Questions

Past Simple - Making Negatives and Questions

Olga Nazarova
This worksheet will help your students to practise making negative sentences and questions in past simple with irregular verbs. They already have the affirmative ones and just have to complete the ...
1 Views 32,624 BegElemPre-Int
Put BusyTeacher in your inbox

Sign up for the BusyTeacher Weekly and be the first to get direct links to our latest teaching articles, worksheets and lesson plans. Goes out to 323,134 subscribers every Wednesday.
See last week's issue.

Jolene

Jolene

Celia
There are 2 worksheets. One is double lyrics and students find some words in the dictionary. The second worksheet is for a complete class. Students can use the dictionary and complete some exercis ...
1 Views 13,570 BegElem

"The Greatest Show" from The Greatest Showman Song Worksheet

Elia
Inspired by other worksheets I have seen here, I created this one based on the song "The Greatest Show"  from the movie The Greatest Showman. Hope its useful! It also contains some quick ques ...
1 Views 45,573 Pre-IntInt
Song Worksheet: I Must be Dreaming by The Maine (Present Simple)

Song Worksheet: I Must be Dreaming by The Maine (Present Simple)

Ana
It's a great song to make beginner students understand the usage of the verbs in Present Simple, according to the pronouns. They have the words that are missing already, so they must listen and co ...
1 Views 14,160 BegElemPre-IntExam
I Have Never - Present Perfect

I Have Never - Present Perfect

Bianka Molnar
Have you ever played 'Never have I ever...'? - Well, it's time to practise the Present Perfect while having some fun. It can be a great homework assignment or just a practise of understanding the ...
1 Views 37,407 Pre-IntIntAdv
Vera's Walk To Present Simple/Continuous

Vera's Walk To Present Simple/Continuous

VASILIKI LISMANI
Grammar theory can be very boring, especially for very young learners who struggle to remember the rules. Things can be easier and more meaningful if we present them in a story. Vera's walk in ten ...
1 Views 17,094 Beg
Doesn't Remind Me - Audioslave - Present Simple (negative)

Doesn't Remind Me - Audioslave - Present Simple (negative)

Débora
This Audioslave's song allows us to practise the present simple. As it can be seen in the title, the focus is on the negative form of the 3rd person singular. Students have to fill in the blanks ...
1 Views 14,929 Elem
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

Irina Komoltseva
Shakespeare is one of the most popular writers the world has ever known. His creations are still popular today and millions of people still admire them. April is a good month to talk about William ...
1 Views 22,466 Pre-Int
Song Worksheet - It Will Rain - Bruno Mars

Song Worksheet - It Will Rain - Bruno Mars

Karina
This worksheet can be used to help students to understand the use of the future (will and contractions). The vocabulary is easy and students can understand the lyrics. They listen the song and com ...
1 Views 35,486 ElemPre-Int
Regular and Irregular Verbs: Past Tense

Regular and Irregular Verbs: Past Tense

The following worksheets consist of two pages about the past tense. They emphasize the difference between regular and irregular verbs and start with a presentation, followed by practice, and endin ...
1 Views 42,343 BegElemPre-IntInt
Ed Sheeran - Shape of You (3rd Person Singular Practice and More)

Ed Sheeran - Shape of You (3rd Person Singular Practice and More)

Marina Andrade
I hope you can make good use of this worksheet made specially for ESL students from Brazil. Start by eliciting the questions they should write. Then, ss go in pairs and ask each other the question ...
1 Views 26,287 BegElemPre-IntInt
Interview With A Biker Reading And Speaking

Interview With A Biker Reading And Speaking

This is a short text adapted from a blog presenting an interview in reported speech. I have created questions to help students understand the text and also help them prepare for a role play. There ...
1 Views 16,834 ElemPre-Int
Adverbs of Frequency Ladder Game

Adverbs of Frequency Ladder Game

SI
Practice using adverbs of frequency with this game. This is a game for two. You will need a token each. Game rules: 1. Place your tokens at the bottom of the ladder. 2. In turns, ask each oth ...
1 Views 33,534 ElemPre-IntInt
Kamchatka Is My Homeland

Kamchatka Is My Homeland

Maria
This is a PowerPoint presentation about a unique Russian peninsula called Kamchatka. In this material you can find some information about Kamchatka's nature, houses and people while looking at the ...
1 Views 6,898 Elem
Rapunzel's Daily Routine

Rapunzel's Daily Routine

GALINA
This section is aimed at training the use of the Present Simple tense to speak about your daily routine. The workseet is based on the episode from the Disney cartoon Tangled (2010). The tasks tar ...
1 Views 16,235 Pre-Int
The Spoken Essay: Structure and Persuasion in Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor Speech

The Spoken Essay: Structure and Persuasion in Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor Speech

Todd Davis
FDR's request to Congress to declare war on Japan in retaliation for the attack on America is historic and iconic, as much for the structure of the speech as for the gravity of the attack itself. ...
1 Views 26,362 IntAdv
Description of a Pie Chart

Description of a Pie Chart

Zaida Sanuri
This worksheet serves as an introduction to how to use English language expressions in describing a pie chart for ESL or EFL students. It includes vocabulary, comprehension and sentence-level writ ...
1 Views 21,141 ElemPre-IntInt
Verbs to Show Senses

Verbs to Show Senses

ΚΑΤΕΡΙ\
This worksheet provides practice in the use of verbs of senses offering a choice of possibilities for students to create sentences. Students are expected to combine a suitable subject with an appr ...
6 Views 19,778 Pre-Int
Likes and Dislikes Conversation Activity

Likes and Dislikes Conversation Activity

Maria Botina
In this activity, students pair up. Each student receives a list of different items and asks his/her partner "Do you like (insert item from list)?" If the partner says "yes," the student colors in ...
7 Views 42,964 BegElem
Where is Judy Going? Zootopia Board Game

Where is Judy Going? Zootopia Board Game

Adela Abd
This board game is played after watching Zootopia. Students learn about Places in Town. It is expected that students can practice asking and giving information, such as "Where is she going?" and " ...
3 Views 21,314 BegElem
Cheerleader by OMI

Cheerleader by OMI

Celia
You can teach simple present tense, the rule of the third person and the auxiliaries Do and Does. You can also teach vocabulary. There are two pages, the first one you look for the vocabulary, the ...
3 Views 14,747 Elem

Got a great worksheet on Verb Tense Worksheets? Tell us about it and become a BusyTeacher contributor!

Submit a Worksheet