Narrative Tenses:Past Simple, Past Continuous and

Past Perfect

2016

Narrative tenses like Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Perfect are

used to tell stories or to talk about activities and situations that

happened in the past.

LET'S CHECK THE TENSES!

Past Simple

- The Past Simple expresses an action that started and finished in the past or talk about completed action in the past.- It also expresses a past habit.- It goes after WHEN.*It uses regular and irregular past verbs and the auxiliary DID or DIDN'T.

Past Continuous

- The Past Continuous is a progressive action that was happening in a moment in the past or describe actions in progress in the past.- It's also used when something else happened.- It's used for temporary past action.- It can be interrumped by another action (Past Simple).

- It's important to remember that we can't use State Verb with this tense. Some of them are, Emotions: Need, Love, Hate... Possession: Want, Belong, Have... Sense: Smell, See, Hear, Taste... Thought: Think, Remember, Believe, Know... - It goes after WHILE or AS.*Its main verb form is: was/were + verbing.

Past Perfect

- The Past Perfect describes a past action that happened before another action in the past.

- Its main verb form is HAD + Past Participle Verb.

What happened when we tell a story?

The past continuous set the scene.

The past simple describes the main events.

The past perfect makes the story more interesting.

LET'S PRACTICE

I. Complete the story using the past simple, past perfect, or past continuous of the verbs in brackets.

It (be) Tuesday evening and I (get) ready to go to bed when the phone (ring). To my surprise it (be) my friend Peter. He (call) from his mobile and he was very annoyed because he (lose) his keys and he (cannot) get into his flat. He (think) he (leave) them at work but now it was midnight and the office was closed so he (cannot) get in to check. Luckily I had the keys to his flat because a month before he (give) me a spare set so that I could look after his cat while he was on holiday. When he finally (arrive) to pick them up, it was three o'clock in the morning, and I (lie) on the sofa fast asleep.

It was (be) Tuesday evening and I was getting (get) ready to go to bed when the phone rang (ring). To my surprise it was (be) my friend Peter. He was calling (call) from his mobile and he was very annoyed because he had lost (lose) his keys and he couldn't (cannot) get into his flat. He thought (think) he had left (leave) them at work but now it was midnight and the office was closed so he couldn't (cannot) get in to check. Luckily I had the keys to his flat because a month before he had given (give) me a spare set so that I could look after his cat while he was on holiday. When he finally arrived (arrive) to pick them up, it was three o'clock in the morning, and I was lying (lie) on the sofa fast asleep.

Material prepared and selected by

Danitza Lazcano FloresTeacher of English

Master in Education andEducational Counselor