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 to practice irregular verbs divided into groups according to certain similarity. Students follow the pattern which helps them guess the remaining forms in the chart without hav ...
Slovak ppt about festivals, which can be used on English, it contains wordsearch and crossword about festivals.Students will learn about holidays and festivals in Great Britain, new vocabulary abo ...
It's a fairly simple grammar worksheet, where you can observe some examples and then students have to write and answer questions also. It's time saving and totally grammatical. It can be done as r ...
Reading comprehension activity, with different exercises, true/false, questions, drawing, etc. It can be used with children at elementary or intermediate levels. It is a good way to review verb te ...
This is a creative writing worksheet that practices descriptive adjectives and simple present verbs. You have to create a new flavor of jellybeans. Using the simple present tense, you can practic ...
My students had to read 'The Body' and before reading it we worked on the song Stand by me by The Beatles because the film is based on that book. The have to listen to the song and complete with t ...
This is a 2-page picture dictionary for teaching or revising 52 different regular verbs. They can also be used as a study sheet or a classroom poster. Available in both colour and black and whit ...
This is a funny song which is about students who are lazy and don't want to work. The song is a parody for the song " I am Sexy and I know it". The students can see what a person can be if he does ...
Present simple (written test) is a middle term test, where you can find different exercises to use the present simple, as negative, affirmative or interrogative but not also this, you have a text ...
Easy exercises about routines. They are mechanical examples so the students can understand the basic about this tense. The verbs are very ordinary ones and then they can use them all the time. You ...
Two part, past simple, past continuous, and questions, police and suspect activity cards. The first is a 'partner' reading or role play activity. The second is a speaking, gap fill role play activ ...
Reporting a crime. Past simple, past continuous, and questions activity. Reading, speaking, gap fill writing & role play activity cards. The first card is a reading dialogue for partners. The ...
It is a short film activity called Inbox. It is ideal for elementary and pre intermediate students to practice Simple Past Tense. It is a silent film but there are pre watching, while watching, po ...
Choose the correct verbs and auxs. Have students choose the correct verbs and auxs in the missing spaces. This is intended to check students' knowledge on the basic use of present tense. An easy w ...
Proverbs. Often an interesting starting point for discussion. Also useful for writing exercises. A change is as good as a rest A dog is a man's best friend A friend in need is a friend indeed ...
General work-sheet on tenses ( simple present " prefrences" simple past " what did you do?" "YN questions") (past con. and present con). It helps the students in putting all the tenses in one fra ...
The worksheet consists of some pictures, some sentences with gaps and a list of verbs. The students have to fill in the gaps by choosing verbs from the list according to the pictures. They have to ...
This worksheet consists of 4 exercises to revise the use of to be & have got. In 1 the students have to fill in the gaps with the correct form of to be, in 2 with have got; in 3 with either be ...
TASK: You may want to introduce the topic of having a date, before you start this activity. The girl in the movie is called Zoe (a doctor in a small town) and the guy's name is Judson (a vet). ...
Great to use in a conversational classroom. After teaching the students the rules of using "used to" use this worksheet to help them create and answer questions using this phrase. They need to go ...
It can be a homework or a filler during the Halloween season. Students have to put together the sentences of a Halloween story using the codes given in the table. It is ideal for elementary level ...
A simple worksheet with clear rules (can be alternated, of course) will help your students practice the most common irregular verbs in a funny way. Students have to say or find all the forms, tran ...
Song activity sheet (gap fill) to review the Present Simple Tense. There is the answer sheet as well. This song can also be used for discussion about cities: What is the song about? Who is the sin ...
Song activity and teacher's key sheets to work on the parts of the body. This song by Rihanna is very popular mainly among youngsters but adults often enjoy listening to it too. The labels coverin ...
Hi, this is a worksheet to use with the song "I'm Sailing" by Rod Stewart. The activities are: find the missing words, put the lines in order, rewrite a verse in the past simple, find the anonyms, ...
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