What are narrative tenses?

• We use them to talk about past events and to tell stories

• The most common of these narrative tenses is the 
past simple. 
• The past continuous and past perfect simple 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.
Past Simple = describes a completed past action

Last year, we went to Paris.

past now

went to Paris
Past Continuous = describes a past action which
continue for some time. It is often used in contrast
with past simple.

It was raining and people were going home.

She was having lunch when her mobile rang.

when her mobile rang.

past now future

She was having lunch

• Past Perfect = describes a past action which
happened before another past action. It is often used
with the past simple.

• I had eaten breakfast before I went out

I went out
past now future

I had eaten
 Narrative tenses in a written story

• Narrative tenses are common in written stories, esp. 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 

 Past continuous: were blowing 
 Past perfect: had left 
 Narrative tenses in a written story

«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.»
 The first three verbs - opened, looked and walked - are
a sequence: they are written in the order that the actions took
place. We know this because they are in the past simple. 
 The past continuous verb, were blowing, shows an action in
progress: the curtains started blowing before he walked into
the room and continued to blow while he was there.
 Narrative tenses in a written story

«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.»
 The last verb, had left, shows an action that
happened before he walked in.
 If we used the past simple for the last verb, the meaning would
be different: The window was open, the curtains were blowing.
Someone left in a hurry. 
This suggests that the person left after Bond walked in.
 Narrative tenses in conversation
Narrative tenses are common in conversation when we talk about past experiences

― David: I saw a UFO once. Well, I think it was one.

― Carol: Oh yeah?
― David: Yeah, really. I was in the country - in Yorkshire - on the moors...
― Carol: What were you doing there?
― David: Oh, I was visiting some friends. They'd rented a cottage and we'd gone to
stay with them.

• Past simple: saw, was

 Narrative tenses in conversation
• Past continuous: (What) were (you) doing?, was visiting
• Past perfect: they'd rented, we'd gone

• The first verb saw is used in an introductory sentence.

• The verb was visiting shows an action that started before the main event
(seeing the UFO) happened and was in progress. It is background information.

• The verbs had rented and had gone show actions that happened before the
main event. They are also background information.