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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A simple worksheet containing a set of 30 images to be used as a warmer or filler. Cut the pictures into cards. Ss put them face down. Then they take turns and according to their level, they can.. ...
This is a song worksheet designed to check some close sounds distinction as well as some irregular verbs past forms. I enjoyed listening to the song and so did my students who loved doing the vari ...
Designed to intermediate and upper-intermediate students, this worksheet deals with the differences between Present Simple and Present Continuous focusing on Stative and Dynamic verbs. The first p ...
Even though this activity was designed for adults, it actually can be assigned to all ages. It consists of noticing exercises for guiding students based on the Australian animation Mary & Max. ...
Even though this activity was designed for adults, it actually can be assigned to all ages. It consists of differences of using either the present perfect or the past simple based on the Australia ...
This worksheet contains a story and a set of pictures that can be used in order to teach or revise the names of certain animals and also the parts of their bodies. There are also two lesson plans ...
This is a simple worksheet about the movie "The Journey to the Center of the Earth", with Brendan Fraser. Unfortunately, I couldn't find that on Youtube. In this activity, students watch the first ...
This worksheet contains chores vocabulary and present simple tense. There are four different activities: reading, a combination related to the vocabulary, speaking and writing. Teachers can edit i ...
This flow chart is great for students (Ss) to refer to once they have learned the Present Simple structure. It has really helped my Ss. It helps Ss understand the structure of Present Simple visua ...
This is a fully animated PowerPoint Presentation for teaching or revising daily routines related vocabulary and the present simple tense. Recommended for elementary students.
Board game to practice the Present Perfect. Students are supposed to go through the sentences and complete the vebs in each one using the Past Participle. Material: dice Interaction: groups of th ...
Mixed tense revision sheet on present tenses (Present Simple, Present Continuous, and Present Perfect) in the multiple choice test format including the answer key. This revision can be both a re ...
This song is full of adjectives and is good for opposites and comparatives. It is good for students with strong listening skills as it's sung very quickly. It could be used with a strong elementar ...
There are two parts: questions and answers. The tenses are in the present simple so students in low level can do these exercises. Pupils match the questions to the answers. Later they can ask the ...
Present cont. vs. Simple Present exercise. It is a gap-filling activity including stative verbs, action verbs, temporary actions, regular actions. The aim is to reinforce students' ability to diff ...
This is a worksheet for intermediate students contrasting the past simple and the present perfect. There are 2 pages with activities in which students are asked to fill in the blank spaces with th ...
An easy and entertaining activity for students to practice Past Simple irregular verbs (pre-intermediate level). Students have to find the irregular verbs in the wordsearch. This activity can be d ...
Even though it's an old song, it's so nice. Students can practice verbs in simple present and present continuous listening to this song. It's a very simple and relaxing activity you can do it as ...
This cover Madonna recorded in 2000 is great to practice the simple past, practice vocabulary, teach expressions and to "open" the students' ears as they have fun trying to sing with the Queen Of ...
A great, funny speaking WS to revise/activate present simple, present continuous and "going to" future. Students examine our imaginary teacher's (Jim) routine funny week, and add a few activities ...
THE GIANT PANDA - READING COMPREHENSION task for students of secondary school. You can use it to check reading skills and speaking. Moreover, it can be part of your lesson about Animals and Ecolog ...
This worksheet is used for making a time line. The activity will help students to be aware of the tenses and their position in the time. Time lines are useful for children to understand where the ...
This is a 2-page worksheet suitable for elementary students for teaching or revising have got. There are four easy activities in which students are asked to complete the sentences with have got or ...
This worksheet explains how to form the present and past simple with some common verbs. There is also a very useful list of some of the most common irregular verbs in past simple and past perfect ...
Two fun exercises with the songs Killing Me Softly and Fernando. With the first song, Ss do an error correction type of practice, correcting the verbs in past tense (all written with ed). With the ...
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