Narrative past tense

01 Simple past
CONTENTS
02 Past perfect

03 Past Continuous

04 Past Perfect Continuous

 01

Simple past
Simple Past

We use the simple past:

• to describe the main events in sequence, i.e.,

one event after another:

He turned up the computer,

joined the meeting, and started the class.

• to describe a general state in the past:

It was one of the greatest day of

my life.
 02

Past Perfect
 Past Perfect

To describe something that

When we need to make it clear
happened (or a state that was true)
that one past event happened
before the main event(s) or story.
before another one.
When the parents arrived, the I couldn’t believe it when I saw the
party had already finished. plane tickets in his hand. I’d always
wanted to visit Canada.
 03

Past Continuous
 Past Continuous

The background to the main

story.
• It was 2013, and I was playing the final
kickball game in B/grande.

The background to an event

within the story.
• I was making the slides when the electricity
went off.
(background activity continuous after event)
 04

Past Perfect Continuous

Past Perfect Continuous

We use the past perfect continuous

to describe a longer activity in
progress in the past:

• Before a main event:

It had been raining all night,

and the street was flooded

• up to a main event:

We’d been enjoying a morning on the

beach when something strange happened.
Past Perfect Continuous

We form the past perfect continuous

with had + been + ing:

• Affirmative:

I had been practicing volleiball for

weeks.

• Negative:

She hadn’t been waiting for long.

• Question:

Had you been waiting for the police?

Past Continuous and Past Perfect Continuous

We use both past continuous and past

perfect continuous to talk about an
activity in progress in the past. With
the past perfect continuous, there is
more emphasis on the duration of the
activity:

I’d been walking all morning,

so I had really sore feet.

I was crossing the road

when I saw him.
 Thank you
for listening