The document discusses different past tenses in English - the past simple, past continuous, and past perfect tenses. It provides examples of how each tense is used to describe actions and situations that occurred in the past. Specifically, it notes that the past simple expresses completed actions, the past continuous describes ongoing actions, and the past perfect places one past action before another for storytelling purposes. It then provides an example story and exercises for the reader to practice using these tenses to narrate events that happened in the past.

1. Narrative Tenses:
Past Simple, Past Continuous and
Past Perfect
2016

2. Narrative tenses like Past Simple,
Past Continuous and Past Perfect are
used to tell stories or to talk about
activities and situations that
happened in the past.

3. LET'S CHECK THE TENSES!

4. Past Simple
- The Past Simple expresses an action that
started and finished in the past or talk about
completed action in the past.
- It also expresses a past habit.
- It goes after WHEN.
*It uses regular and irregular past verbs and the
auxiliary DID or DIDN'T.

5. Past Continuous
- The Past Continuous is a progressive action
that was happening in a moment in the past
or describe actions in progress in the past.
- It's also used when something else happened.
- It's used for temporary past action.
- It can be interrumped by another action (Past
Simple).

6. - It's important to remember that we can't use
State Verb with this tense. Some of them are,
Emotions: Need, Love, Hate...
Possession: Want, Belong, Have...
Sense: Smell, See, Hear, Taste...
Thought: Think, Remember, Believe, Know...
- It goes after WHILE or AS.
*Its main verb form is: was/were + verbing.

7. Past Perfect
- The Past Perfect describes a past action that
happened before another action in the past.
- Its main verb form is HAD + Past Participle
Verb.

8. What happened when we tell a story?
The past continuous set the scene.
The past simple describes the main events.
The past perfect makes the story more
interesting.

9. LET'S PRACTICE

10. I. Complete the story using the past simple, past perfect,
or past continuous of the verbs in brackets.
It (be) Tuesday evening and I (get) ready to go to bed
when the phone (ring). To my surprise it (be) my friend
Peter. He (call) from his mobile and he was very annoyed
because he (lose) his keys and he (cannot) get into his
flat. He (think) he (leave) them at work but now it was
midnight and the office was closed so he (cannot) get in
to check. Luckily I had the keys to his flat because a
month before he (give) me a spare set so that I could look
after his cat while he was on holiday. When he finally
(arrive) to pick them up, it was three o'clock in the
morning, and I (lie) on the sofa fast asleep.

11. It was (be) Tuesday evening and I was getting (get)
ready to go to bed when the phone rang (ring). To my
surprise it was (be) my friend Peter. He was calling
(call) from his mobile and he was very annoyed
because he had lost (lose) his keys and he couldn't
(cannot) get into his flat. He thought (think) he had
left (leave) them at work but now it was midnight and
the office was closed so he couldn't (cannot) get in to
check. Luckily I had the keys to his flat because a
month before he had given (give) me a spare set so
that I could look after his cat while he was on holiday.
When he finally arrived (arrive) to pick them up, it
was three o'clock in the morning, and I was lying (lie)
on the sofa fast asleep.

12. Material prepared and
selected by
Danitza Lazcano Flores
Teacher of English
Master in Education and
Educational Counselor