Professional Documents
Culture Documents
to talk about the past when we are telling a story in spoken English or when we are
summarising a book, film, play etc.
Tense Form
We can use the present tenses to talk about the past ...
Well, it’s a lovely day and I’m just walking down the street when I see this funny guy
walking towards me. Obviously he’s been drinking, because he’s moving from side to
side …
I love Ian Rankin’s novels. He writes about this detective called Rebus. Rebus lives in
Edinburgh and he’s a brilliant detective, but he’s always getting into trouble. In one
book, he gets suspended and they tell him to stop working on this case. But
he takes no notice ….
Romeo and Juliet is a violent play. After Romeo and Juliet have married in secret,
Romeo is walking in Verona when Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt tries to provoke Romeo into a
fight. Romeo refuses to fight and leaves, but his friend, Mercutio, is so angry that
he fights Tybalt and is killed ….
The 4 Present
Examples Uses
Tenses
For example:
I play every Tuesday
For example:
I have played for his team before.
The 4 Past
Examples Uses
Tenses
I went.
simple past The simple past tense is used to
The Martians landed
tense describe a completed activity that
near the aqueduct.
started in the past and ended in
the past.
I had gone.
The past perfect tense is used to
Silverfinger had
past perfect emphasize that an action was
taken the pill before
tense completed before another took
the team reached
place.
him.
For example:
I was playing for an hour.
For example:
I had been playing since I was ten.