THE NARRATIVE TENSES
Past simple
oDescribes the main events of the story
oDescribes sequences of events (that day we got up before sunrise, had
breakfast to the sound of lions roaring in the distance, packed our gear into
the jeep and set off, excited about what the day ahead might bring us)
oIt is the 'standard' narrative tense. If in doubt, go for past simple.
Past continuous
oDescribes unfinished actions, especially around a certain time
oDescribes longer actions interrupted by shorter ones
oIs often used for giving background to a story
oIs sometimes used to make the actions in a story seem more immediate,
especially with the word,
now
Past perfect
oDescribes actions which took place before the main actions in the story
oServes to give chronological order to a story (when we got back to the
camp site that evening we found out that a bad storm had lifted our tent and
blown it into the sea, with all our stuff in it)
Past perfect continuous
oDescribes longer continuous actions which took place before the main
actions in the story
oAnswers the question ‘how long’ (what is the difference between ‘how
long did you live in Paris?’ and ‘How long had you been living in Paris when
you met Claude?’ ?)
oIs sometimes used to explain the condition of people or things at the time
of the main events in the story.
How well do you know how to use the narrative tenses?
Choose the correct alternative
1. Before I
was starting/started/have started
my current job, I was
working
/worked
for an NGO for a couple of years.
2.They
were sheltering /sheltered
in a cliffside cave when they
were
spotted/were being spotted
by Air Sea Rescue.
3. When the motor lifeboat finally
found/ had found
us, we
had been sitting/sat
in the raft for several hours and we
used up/had used
up all our food and
water.
4. As soon as she
saw/was seeing
how late it was, she
jumped/ had jumped
out
of bed.
5. The lady sitting opposite me on the train asked me to thread a needle for her
but, as I
didn’t bring /hadn’t brought
my reading glasses with me, I couldn’t see
the eye of the needle for the life of me.
6.The roads were very slippery as it
was raining/ had been raining
all morning.
7. Jess was obviously very upset about something. Her eyes looked swollen and
it was clear that she
cried/had been crying
.
