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Understanding Narrative Tenses

The document discusses different uses of narrative tenses in the past, including: 1) The past simple tense to describe completed actions in the past or habitual actions. 2) The past continuous tense to describe actions that were in progress or interrupted at a specific time in the past. 3) The past perfect tense to describe actions that occurred before other past actions. It also provides examples of each tense and discusses using time clauses to indicate the sequence of two past actions.

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Zorica Arnaudova
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443 views1 page

Understanding Narrative Tenses

The document discusses different uses of narrative tenses in the past, including: 1) The past simple tense to describe completed actions in the past or habitual actions. 2) The past continuous tense to describe actions that were in progress or interrupted at a specific time in the past. 3) The past perfect tense to describe actions that occurred before other past actions. It also provides examples of each tense and discusses using time clauses to indicate the sequence of two past actions.

Uploaded by

Zorica Arnaudova
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NARRATIVE TENSES

PAST SIMPLE USE


Marco Polo first travelled to China in 1971.
I saw him two days ago.
I heard voices coming from downstairs, so I put on
my dressing gown and went down to investigate.
Mary stood up, walked across the room and
opened the window.
When I was a child, we lived in a small house by the
sea. Every day I walked for miles on the beach with my
dog. (= I don’t live in a house by the sea now, and I don’t
walk on the beach every day)
PAST CONTINUOUS USE
At 7 o’clock this morning I was having breakfast. (I
started my breakfast before 7, and continued eating after
7)
What were you doing at 9 o’clock last night?
When we arrived, the weather was beautiful. The sun
was shining and a lovely, warm breeze was blowing
from the sea.
Mary looked gorgeous. She was wearing a beautiful
red dress.
When the phone rang, I was having a shower.
While we were playing tennis, it started to rain.
While I was reading, my mum was cooking lunch.

I was reading a book during the flight. (=I didn’t


finish it – Past Continuous)
I read a book during the flight. (=I finished it – Past
Simple)
I was working all day yesterday.
They were arguing for the whole of the holiday.
PAST PERFECT USE
She was crying because her dog had died.
When I arrived at the party to pick up Jane, she had
already left.
John was fed up. He’d been looking for a job for
months, but so far he’d found nothing.

Choose between the following use of the past tenses:


1) a finished action in the past
2) an action which happened before another past action
3) a description of a past situation or activity
4) actions which follow each other in a story
5) an incomplete activity in the past
6) an activity in progress before and probably after a particular time in the past
7) a past state or a habit
8) an interrupted past activity
9) an activity that was in progress at every moment during a period of time
10) two actions that were happening at the same time in the past – parallel actions

Time Clauses

1. We can use the time conjunctions to talk about two actions that happened one after the other.
After he had had/had dinner, he watched TV. As soon as we had arrived/arrived, she said hello.
I stayed at the party until it had ended/ended.

2. Past Perfect can separate the first action of the second or make it seem completed before the second action
started.
When I had read the paper, I threw it away. He didn’t go home until I had felt better.

3. When there are two verbs in Past Simple it suggests that the first action caused the other to happen.
After his mother died, he moved to Australia. As soon as I heard the gunshot, I hid under the bed.

4. The past perfect is more common with when than with the other conjunctions.
As soon as the guests left, I started tidying up. When I opened the window, the bird flew out.
Before I moved to another country, I didn’t know the meaning of boredom.

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