A selection of English ESL when while printables

This worksheet includes grammar exercises about simple past and past continuous tense. It also includes brief grammar notes to highlight the basic structure forms of these tenses. 

past simple and past continuous, when-while

Time clauses with as soon as, before, when, while, unless, as long as, provided that

Time Clauses

The worksheet contains exercises for Past Simple and Past Continuous tenses. Both comparison and mixed sentences. 

I hope it will help you explain your students the rules and they will become masters. 

Past Simple and Past Continuous

We sometimes have to test the local emergency switchboard operators and I have some of the older role-plays left over. So, here they are. Cut out the cards and divide them into “operator cards” and “casualty cards.” On a board make a mind map of the kinds of questions emergency switchboard operators and accident victims would ask each other. Give an operator card to one student and a casualty card to another. The student with the operator card is on the emergency switchboard and must answer a ringing phone. The student with the casualty card must provide and answer relevant questions while the operator must ask for the appropriate details and decide on a course of action while giving suitable advice. The rest of the students must then vote on whether or not the operator acted for the best. Tell the operators to start with the phrase, “999 emergency. Can I help you?” (911 for our cousins across the pond) Take notes of any structure, pronunciation, grammar and intonation problems and then address them when the exercise is over.

Emergency Switchboard Role-Play

This worksheet can be used to practise the use of Past Simple and Past Continuous in contrast. It also provides an exercise where students have to join sentences by means of WHEN and WHILE. The key is included at the end. I hope you find it useful!

Unlock Higher IELTS Writing Scores with Complex Sentences!

This worksheet focuses on mastering complex sentences using subordinating conjunctions – a crucial skill for achieving a Band 7 or higher in IELTS Writing. You'll learn to effectively combine independent and dependent clauses to express nuanced ideas and showcase grammatical range.

Inside, you'll find exercises designed to help you:

Identify independent and dependent clauses.
Recognize and correctly use common subordinating conjunctions (e.g., although, because, while, if, since, when, as, until, unless).
Practice joining simple sentences into complex ones, varying clause order for impact.


Complex Sentences

This is a listening practice. Students watch a 5min Youtube video taken from a FRIENDS episode. I teach Korean students so I include Korean(change or delete when necessary) translation to help them with understanding. However, students watch the episode without subtitles. While watching the video, they must listen for the lines and attempt to complete the gap-fill. I check with students' for answers then discuss the context of the phrases. This is also a fun and educational way to pick up useful everyday English phrases.  

FRIENDS

This is a classic Guess Who boardgame I made using characters that I generated with the WimpyKid character Generator (http://www.wimpykidclub.co.uk/wimp-yourself/)The Guess Who game is this: Students have to guess each other's mystery person before their opponent guesses theirs. They can only answer YES or NO.



You can use this worksheet in your ESL/EFL classes to practise body parts, clothes, (garments and accessories), and asking closed (Yes/No) questions in an entertaining way. Sure to get your students involved.



I recommend using this ESL printable worksheet up till pre-intermediate level, as the game is focused on asking questions and giving short answers in the Present Simple tense using the auxiliary verb 'have', and the Present Continuous tense using the verb "wear".



Sample questions are included on page 2 of this worksheet. 





Here's how to play the Guess Who game in ESL class: 



1. Pair students up and let them choose a 'mystery person' secretly. 



2. Tell them the rules: 



A) The point of the game is: who can find each other's mystery person first? 



B) Students may only ask 'YES' or ‘NO’ questions (and of course, reposnd with a 'YES' or 'NO'). 



C) If some detail is not clearly visible in the picture or is subject to interpretation, your pupils can reply: "I can't tell" or "It's not possible to tell". 



D) In each turn, students narrow down the scope of the possible mystery persons. When they feel certain enough to make a guess, they can, but if they guess wrong, they've lost.



3. Give one copy of the boardgame to every student. 



4. You're advised to hand out one transparent plastic foil with each Guess Who boardgame. Students can place the foil over the boardgame and cross out on it the characters that they have ruled out using an erasable magic marker. 



Here's how this works: for example, one student asks: "Is your person blond?" If the answer is 'Yes', then he/she crossed out all the persons that are NOT blond, leaving only the blondes eligible. If the answer is 'No', they cross out all the characters that are blond, leaving only the non-blondes up.



5. Throughout the game encourage students to respond with auxiliary verbs, not just a simple Yes or No, e.g. "Yes, he or she is/does", "No, he or she isn't/doesn't" (using the form "he or she" until the gender of the mystery character has been revealed in order to keep this info hidden). Once the gender is revealed, they can go on using the specific gender in responses, e.g. "Yes, he is", "Yes, he does", "No, he isn't", No, he doesn't". You could, however, also opt for forbidding questions about the mystery person's gender. This way you'll see longer games and more questions.

Guess Who ESL Boardgame

Try this fun video activity to practise using various past narrative tenses, including the past simple, past continuous, and past perfect. Watch the video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6PIm2gvDJs


Instructions:



•	Watch the video. 

•	Combine the two sentences into one sentence. 

•	Use a linking word such as when, while, because, so, and, etc. to link the sentences. 

•	Do not change the order of the clauses.

•	Change the verb forms used if necessary (e.g. “He went…” to “He was going…” or “He had gone”).

Mixed Past Tenses - Mr. Bean Video Activity

This is a worksheet to practice past simple and past progressive using the connectors "when" and "while". Ask students to look at the pictures and write a correct sentences.

PAST PROGRESSIVE AND PAST SIMPLE WITH “WHEN” AND “WHILE”

Cut out the cards and divide them into “hotel cards” and “guest cards.”



On a board make a mind map of the kinds of questions guests and receptionists would ask each other.



Give a guest card to one student and a hotel card to another.



The student with the hotel card is the receptionist and must answer a ringing phone.



The student with the guest card must ask relevant questions while the receptionist must answer the questions while asking for the appropriate details.



Take notes of any structure, pronunciation, grammar and intonation problems and then address them when the exercise is over. 



Hotel Reservation

This ESL worksheet helps students to learn verbs and expressions related to daily routines.



Besides that, this activity lends them the opportunity to have more contact and learn those verbs in better while coloring, cutting and paste them in their notebooks.



Then they will write for every image at what time they do the particular activity.



They can contrast their daily routines with their classmates.



They can do the activity forming groups to share colors, scissors and glue for the activity.



As an extra for the activity, the can read aloud and listen to their classmates to tell at what time they do their daily routine activities, practicing telling the time.



They can practice BEFORE and AFTER prepositions.



(For more advanced level students) They can talk about how, where, why, when, who with they do the activities... (etc)

Daily routines - Color, cut and paste

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

177 When while English ESL worksheets pdf & doc