past tenses

MOVIE

TIME

Narrative

Past tenses

START

16

We use several different tenses when we narrate a story in the past.

We use the simple past

• To describe the main event s in sequence, i.e., one event after another.

He got in the car , started the engine, and drove away.

+ INFO

• To describe a general state in the past.

It was one of the coldest winters in my memory.

We use the past perfect

• When we need to make it clear that one past event happened before another one.

When we arrived the movie had started.

6:00The movie started (1st)

past

future

present

6:20We arrived (2nd)

• To describe something that happened (or a state that was true( before the main event or story).

I couldn't believe it when I saw the tickets on his hand. I'd always wanted to go to Universal Studios.

We use the past continuous to describe an activity in progress in the past.

• The background to an event within the story.

I was sleeping when the phone rang.

• The background to the main story.

It was 2015, and I was living in Paris.

We use the past perfect continuous

To descibe a longer activity in progress in the past.

• Before the main event.

It had been snowing all day, and my flight was canceled

• Up to a main event.

We'd been enjoying a morning on the beach when something strange happened.

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