This document discusses the use of different past tenses in narrative, including the past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous. The past simple is used for short completed actions and longer situations. The past continuous expresses ongoing actions in the past. The past perfect refers to events that occurred before another time in the past, and the past perfect continuous emphasizes ongoing actions up until a point in the past. Each tense is defined and examples are provided to illustrate their proper uses in narration.

1. Use of narrative tenses

2. Past simple We use it when there is no reason to use another past tense.

3. Past simple It is used with short, quickly finished actions and happenings and longer situations.

4. Past simple Yesterday I went to the cinema. He lived in Tenerife for 30 years.

5. Past simple It is also used in stories and descriptions of past events: “ Once upon a time there was a little girl...

6. Past simple It is used with words which refer to finished periods of time. Yesterday, last year, last week, 2 years ago, etc.

7. Past Continuous We use it to express that something was happening in a particular moment in the past. Yesterday, I was painting my bedroom.

8. Past Continuous It is used to talk about background events related to other past events. I was having coffee, when the telephone rang.

9. Past Continuous It is used to talk about temporary situations that happen in the past. In 1995 he was living in Barcelona.

10. Past Continuous It is used to emphasize something said by another person (reporting). John was saying that the postcard never arrived.

11. Past Continuous It is used with always to talk about surprising or annoying habits. When he was a child, he was always jumping and running.

12. Past Continuous It is used with anticipated facts that never occurred. We were getting married, but we had a terrible argument and broke up.

13. Past Continuous Remember that some verbs don’t take progressive tenses. Know, believe, think, be, etc.

14. Past Perfect It’s an earlier past. We use it to refer to something that happened before the time we’re talking about. He had studied English before he started learning French.

15. Past Perfect It is also used to say how long something lasted until a point in the past. When they divorced, they had been married for 5 years.

16. Past Perfect Continuous It is used with actions which had continued up to the past moment we’re talking about. They had been crying until their mom arrived.