Narrative Tenses - Telling a Good story | Baamboozle - Baamboozle

English 13 Public

narrative past tenses

Study Slideshow

Which tense do we use to talk about past events in chronological order; i.e. for the story’s main events.

Past Simple e.g. When she opened the door, she pretended we weren’t there and went to her room.

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Which tense do we use to set the scene in a story and give background information

Present Continuous e.g. Last night I was walking home and listening to my iPod when …

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Which tense do we use to talk about an earlier past completed action that happened before the main event.

The past perfect simple e.g. When she opened the door, he had already left. I realised that I had been there before.

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Which tense do we use to say how much or how many we had done of something before another past action

Past Perfect Simple e.g. We had driven 500 miles and we needed some rest. How many hours had he slept when you woke him up?

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We use which tense for actions in progress in the past or longer actions interrupted by shorter actions in past simple.

Past continous e.g. After dinner, I went into the living room and saw that she was crying. When she opened the door, we were talking about her.

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Which tense do we use when we talk about an action before another action with stative verbs with how long, for or since, always, etc.

the past perfect simple e.g. The day Anne died, they had been married for 48 years. The day I left, I had been in England for exactly 4 years.

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Which tense do we use with with dynamic/action verbs to talk about longer continuous actions that started before the main events of the story.

Past perfect continuous e.g. was furious. I had been waiting for him in the cold, and he didn’t call to say he’d be late

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Which tense do we use with action/dynamic verbs that are repeated actions from earlier in the past

the past perfect continuous e.g. I couldn’t believe it. She had been writing a letter every day for over a year.

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I told John not to drive, because he _____ all night. (DRINK)

I told John not to drive, because he HAD BEEN DRINKING all night.

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Why did you change the channel? I ______ that movie. (WATCH)

Why did you change the channel? I WAS WATCHING that movie.

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When I _____ out of the shower the lights suddenly went out (GET)

When I WAS GETTING out of the shower the lights suddenly went out

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When I saw Clara I realised that she ______ much in all those years. (NOT CHANGE)

When I saw Clara I realised that she HADN'T CHANGED much in all those years.

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When he entered the room somebody _____ him in the head. (HIT)

When he entered the room somebody HIT him in the head.

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