Narrative tenses

C1.1 - English

Narrative tenses

Narrative tenses are used to talk about past events and to tell stories or anecdotes.The most common is the past simple but we also use the past continuous, the past perfect simple and the past perfect continuous to help us say what we want more efficiently.

what are Narrative tenses?

• It gives us the events in a story. They are events that started and finished in the past.
• These events are in chronological order.

• E.g: We were walking as usual one day, when all of a sudden, Bonnie shot off. She started to bark furiously. I saw a man sleeping face down on the sand. Bonnie continued to bark, but the man didn't wake up. He wasn't sleeping; he was dead. It was clear that the storm had washed up the body and that it had been lying on the beach for several hours because the man's clothes were dry.

Past simple

• It gives us the descriptions of a scene or situation and background information.
• We often use the past simple and the past continuous together when one action interrupts another.

• E.g: We were walking as usual one day, when all of a sudden, Bonnie shot off. She started to bark furiously. I saw a man sleeping face down on the sand. Bonnie continued to bark, but the man didn't wake up. He wasn't sleeping; he was dead. It was clear that the storm had washed up the body and that it had been lying on the beach for several hours because the man's clothes were dry..

Past continuous

• It refers to a previous time.
• We can use the past perfect with the past simple together in a sentence to describe an action that happened before another past action.

• E.g: We were walking as usual one day, when all of a sudden, Bonnie shot off. She started to bark furiously. I saw a man sleeping face down on the sand. Bonnie continued to bark, but the man didn't wake up. He wasn't sleeping; he was dead. It was clear that the storm had washed up the body and that it had been lying on the beach for several hours because the man's clothes were dry.

Past Perfect

• It is used to describe something that had been happening over a long period of time.

• E.g: We were walking as usual one day, when all of a sudden, Bonnie shot off. She started to bark furiously. I saw a man sleeping face down on the sand. Bonnie continued to bark, but the man didn't wake up. He wasn't sleeping; he was dead. It was clear that the storm had washed up the body and that it had been lying on the beach for several hours because the man's clothes were dry.

Past Perfect continuous

Let's practice!

Put on your thinking caps!

Talk about the last time you were angry

Past simple

Pick one of the topics and talk about it for 2 minutes.

Talk about the last time you complained about something

Talk about a time you helped someone

Talk about your last birthday

Talk about the last time you went on holiday

Talk about the last time you lied

What were you thinking about when the class started?

Past continuous

What were you doing on 11th of September 2001?

What were you doing yesterday at 7 p.m.?

A man arrived home after having left his new puppy on its own for the first time. When he arrived home he saw...

past perfect

Parents arrive home from holiday after having left their teenage son in charge of the house. They soon realize he's had a big party while they were away. When they arrived home they saw....

A teacher came back into the class and realized she shouldn't have left the students on their own for so long. She walked back in and saw...

Now, lets put all of the narrative tenses in use and do some storytelling!

Click here

Well done!

by Verónica Gaute