3 Narrative tenses

Past Simple and Present Perfect

The Past Simple differs from all three uses of the Present Perfect.
1 The Past Simple refers to finished past.
I ate so much on holiday!
(The holiday is over.)
I’ve eaten too much today!
(Today is not over.)
2 There is no present result.
He lost his keys.
He’s lost his keys.
(He can’t find them now.)
3 It refers to definite past.
We played cards last night/on Tuesday/last month.
I’ve been tired recently/for weeks/since breakfast.

We use indefinite adverbials with the Present Perfect.

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 3 Narrative tenses

Past Simple
The Past Simple is used:

1 to express a finished action in the past.

Irma published her novel in 2010.

2 to express actions which follow each other in a story.

The dog ran into the house, jumped on the sofa, and went to
sleep.

3 to express a past state or habit.

Every winter, we walked to school and played in the snow. We
used to throw snowballs at each other.

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 3 Narrative tenses

Past Continuous
The Past Continuous is used:
1 to express an activity in progress before and probably after a time
in the past.
At 7.00 I was eating breakfast.

2 to describe a past situation or activity.

The sun was shining and everyone was sitting outside in the
garden.

3 to express an interrupted past activity.

She was cooking dinner when I arrived.

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 3 Narrative tenses

4 to express an incomplete activity in the past.

I was answering emails at lunch. (I didn’t finish answering them.)
I answered all my emails at lunch. (I finished them.)

5 to express an activity in progress at every moment during a period of time.

They were painting all afternoon.

Make the sentences.

1 I / read / a book / when the electricity went off

2 They / paint / all day / but they ran out of time

I was reading a book when the electricity went off.

They were painting all day but they ran out of time.

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 3 Narrative tenses

Notice these differences between the Past Simple and the Past Continuous:
What did you do at school? Why didn’t you answer my text?
I took a maths test.
I was taking a maths test.

Simple, complete facts

Past Simple Activity in progress
Past Continuous
Questions in the Past Simple and Past Continuous refer to different times.
When I rang, Lena was sleeping. She woke up and picked up the phone.

What was Lena doing when I rang?

She was sleeping.
What did Lena do when I rang?
She picked up the phone.

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 3 Narrative tenses

Past Perfect
The Past Perfect is used to look back at a time in the past and refer to
an action that happened before then.

6.00 6.20 6.25 6.30

waiting the bus came the bus left Toby arrived

When the bus came, we had been waiting since 6 p.m.

(The continuous refers to longer actions or repeated activities.)

Toby arrived at 6.30pm, but the bus had already left.

(The simple refers to shorter, complete facts.)

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 3 Narrative tenses

Past Perfect and Past Simple

1 Verbs in the Past Simple tell a story in chronological order.

On Tuesday evening, a burglar broke into my aunt’s shop and stole all
the jewellery. In the morning, I arrived at work and found the door
open. I rang the police. I answered their questions for a long time.
Then my aunt arrived and interrupted us.

2 By using the Past Perfect we can tell the story in a different order.

When I arrived at work, I saw that a burglar had broken in and had
stolen all the jewellery.
I had already rung the police by the time my aunt arrived.
I had been answering questions for a long time when she interrupted
us.

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