Narrative tenses

Finn
Hello. Welcome to 6 Minute Grammar with me, Finn.

Catherine
And me, Catherine. Hello.

Finn
In today’s programme we’re talking about narrative tenses…

Catherine
Yes, narrative tenses. That means the past simple tense, the past continuous, the past perfect and the past perfect continuous.

Finn
Yes, we use these tenses to describe events that happened in the past, and for telling stories.

Catherine
We’ll explain when to use each tense…

Finn …we’ll give you lots of examples…

Catherine
…and there’ll be quiz at the end of the show, so listen carefully! Let’s begin with the past simple. We use the past simple tense for events and actions that started and finished in the past. Here’s Mike with our first example.

Mike
I had a terrible day last Monday! It all started when I woke up late.

Catherine
So those three verbs: had , started and woke up , are all in the past simple, because they describe events which started and finished in the past.

Finn
Now if Mike wants to describe the background to his story, or to talk about things that started before his story started, and continued through his story, he can use the past continuous tense, like this:

Mike
It all started when I woke up late. I opened the curtains. It was raining and the traffic was moving very slowly.

Catherine
So that’s it was raining and the traffic was moving , in the past continuous, to set the scene and describe past activities.

Finn
We’ll come back to the past continuous a little later on, but first, let’s look at two more tenses. First, the past perfect. Mike.

Mike
When I looked at my phone, I realised I had slept through the alarm!

Finn
So, Mike used the past perfect I had slept with the past simple when I looked and another past simple I realised to show one past action happened before another one.

Catherine
That’s right. So, first, Mike slept through his alarm, then he looked at his watch and realised. Mike swaps the order of events in his sentence, and uses the past perfect tense to signal that the second thing he talks about actually happened first. One more time please Mike?

Mike
When I looked at my phone, I realised I had slept through the alarm!

Catherine The past perfect continuous works in pretty much the same way, but this time for activities that continued for a length of time.

Mike
When I looked at my phone, I realised I had slept through the alarm. I had been sleeping like a log!

Finn Mike had been sleeping like a log. A past activity that continued for a length of time, before another past event. So we use a range of tenses to build up a story about past events. Let ‘s demonstrate this now. Catherine, tell me something that happened to you today …

Catherine
Ok, Finn. Well, funnily enough, while I was walking to work this morning, I saw a monkey in a tree.

Finn
You never did.

Catherine I did.

Finn I don’t believe you.

Catherine It’s true.

Finn OK. Catherine combined the past continuous I was walking with the past simple I saw.

Catherine That’s right, and I did that to show that one action happened whilst another one was still happening.

Finn
For interrupted activities, in other words. So, Catherine, what happened next?

Catherine
Well, a man told me that the monkey had chased a cat up a tree.

Finn Really?

Catherine Yeah.

Finn Right. So that’s past perfect to say what happened earlier in the past.

Catherine Exactly.

Finn But did it really happen, Catherine? I’m not sure about this.

Catherine No. But let’s go with it.

Finn
Yes. OK. So Catherine, what was a monkey doing in a busy London street?

Catherine
Well … a film crew had been making an advert when the monkey spotted a cat and chased it up the tree.

Finn
I really don’t believe this, but there were two more examples of the past simple spotted and chased with the past perfect continuous had been making .

IDENT
You’re listening to BBC Learning English.

Finn
We’re talking about narrative tenses.

Catherine
Time for a quiz. Fill the gaps in this short story. Number 1. Inspector Jones was called to a robbery. But by the time he arrived, the thief… a) went or b) had gone.

Finn
It’s b) had gone.

Catherine
That’s right. Number two. While he [sfx ding] in the garden, Inspector Jones noticed an open window and two sets of tiny footprints. Is it a) was looking b) had looked?

Finn
It’s a) was looking.

Catherine
That’s right. Number three. When Inspector Jones looked up, he [sfx ding] who had stolen the ring. Is it a) was seeing or b) saw?

Finn
And this one is b) saw. And I think I know who the thieves were - it must be that cat and monkey who have got into this story now!

Catherine
Really! Well done, Finn Sherlock. And well done to you if you got those right. And check out our website at bbclearningenglish.com for more information about on tenses. Join us again for more 6 Minute Grammar.

Both
Bye.