I’ve been asked a few times recently about exercises to go with The English Tenses Practical Grammar Guide – a book I always intended to produce a companion exercise book for. There’s no exercise book yet, but I do have 17 exercises to offer right now.
When I first released The English Tenses, I started creating accompanying exercises for it, many of which are already available on this website. Check out the list below – and if you like them, I’m pleased to announce that I’m focusing on completing the book now. I’ve drawn up a plan and got through perhaps 15% of the writing already – right now there will be a minimum of 90 exercises.
17 English Tenses Exercises
This list includes a diverse selection of exercises covering different areas of understanding the English tenses, from forming the tenses and understanding grammar words connected to them (such as infinitives and participles), through to comparing tenses in use and choosing the correct one. They are in no particular order.
Present Simple vs Present Continuous
Simple vs Continuous – Verbs of State
Identifying the Bare Infinitive
The Bare Infinitive and the Present Simple
The Bare Infinitive in Mixed Tenses
Past Simple Affirmatives and Negatives
Forming Simple Tense Questions
Forming Negative Simple Tenses
Mixed Negative Simple Questions
Mixed Future Tenses (curiously one of the most popular pages on this website)
Using Past Participles with Perfect Tenses
Mixed Tenses – Present Participles
Felix and the Umbrella – Mixed Past Simple Uses
The Christmas Mess – Mixed Tenses Reading
I hope you find some of these exercises useful. If you do there are plenty more on the way!
ELB is run by Phil Williams, a writer based in Sussex, UK, who has taught English internationally and publishes books to help students master natural English.
