The Narrative Tenses – a worksheet

1. I was talking so much that I got confused and put sugar on my burger instead of salt.
2. I was serving vegetables at a table when I tripped and fell.
3. I hadn’t done any training as a waiter so I was very nervous.
4. One day, after I had been working at the hotel for a few weeks they had a big dinner event.
Look at the sentences 1-4 above and decide which of the explanations A-D below refers to which of the
sentences

A It describes actions in progress at the time of the main events in the story.
B It describes main events in the story.
C It describes actions before the main events in the story.
D It describes actions that continued for a period of time before the main events in the story.

Meaning – now answer the following questions about the sentences:

1. I was talking so much that I got confused and put sugar on my burger instead of salt.
What was the woman doing? …....................................
Did she start talking on the phone before she put sugar on the burger? ….............................
Did she want to put sugar on her burger? …............................
Why did she put sugar on her burger? ….........................................

2. I was serving vegetables at a table when I tripped and fell.

How many actions happened in the past? …...........................
Did all three actions start and finish at the same time? …..................................
Was there an action in progress before, during and after the other two? …...............................
Which action tells us about background information? …....................................
Which actions are main events? ….....................................
3. I hadn’t done any training as a waiter so I was very nervous.
How did the waiter feel? …..............................
Why did he feel like this? …...................................
When should he have been trained? …..............................

4. One day, after I had been working at the hotel for a few weeks they had a big dinner event.
When did he start working at the hotel? …......................................
Was the big dinner event before or after he had started working at the hotel? ….........................
Did he continue to work after the dinner event? …...................................

Now draw the timelines:

Form – complete the table. How do you form:

Past Simple Past Continuous

+ subject + Ved/V2 + subject + was/_____ + Ving

- subject +______ + V1 - subject + ______/_____ + _______
? ______ + subject + ______ ? ______/_____ + subject + _______

Past Perfect Past Perfect Continuous

+ subject + ____/____+ Ved/V3 + subject + had + _______+ Ving

- subject + ______+ ______ - subject + _______+ _______+ ______
? ____/_____+ ______+ ______ ? _____ + ______ + been + _____

Phonology – mark the stress patterns in the sentences.

1. I was talking so much that I got confused and put sugar on my burger instead of salt.
2. I was serving vegetables at a table when I tripped and fell.
3. I hadn’t done any training as a waiter so I was very nervous.
4. One day, after I had been working at the hotel for a few weeks they had a big dinner event.

Now consider the features of connected speech and note them below. For example:
go(t) confused – the t is not spoken