Narrative tenses
Form
Subject + past tense
He went to the station.
Subject + be (past) + verb -ing
He was going to the station.
Subject + had + past participle
He had gone to the station.
Subject + had + been + verb -ing
He had been going to the station.
What are narrative tenses?
Narrative tenses are used to talk about past events and to tell stories
Narrative tenses are four tenses that we often use for talking about past events.
The most common of these is the past simple.
The other three tenses, the past continuous, the past perfect simple and the past
perfect continuous, can help us to say what we want more efficiently.
It is useful to look at these tenses together in the context of the function narrating -
relating past events.
Narrative tenses in a written story
Narrative tenses are common in written stories, especially when they
describe action
Bond opened the door very slowly, looked carefully around the room and walked in.
The window was open and the curtains were blowing in the wind. Clearly
someone had left in a hurry.
Past simple
opened, looked, walked, was
