Narrative

tenses

GRAMMAR

LEVEL NUMBER LANGUAGE

Intermediate B2_1065G_EN English
Goals

■ Can identify which are the

four narrative tenses in
English and distinguish
their uses.

■ Can speak about past

events and describe stories
in detail using the narrative
tenses.

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She looked at his face again. She had
seen him somewhere before; she was
sure of it. He was smiling at her now
and she realised he recognised her,
too. Suddenly she remembered! He
had been sitting opposite her on the
train that morning. He was the man
who had helped her when her purse
had fallen and all her money had
spilled out on the floor!

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Preview and warm-up

■ It’s good to live in the moment but we also need to be able to talk about the
past! In this class you will review and practise the past tenses used in English.
By the end of the class you should feel comfortable telling stories about the
past and using all the different past tenses.

Which past tenses do you already know in English?

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Reviewing the past simple

■ We use the past simple to talk about events or actions in the past that are
finished.
■ To form the past simple we add -ed to the end of regular verbs.
■ However, there are also many irregular verbs in English. To use irregular verbs
in the past simple you need to memorise the appropriate verb endings.
■ Below are some examples of how to use the past simple.

■ When we were children we went to stay with our grandparents every year during
the summer holidays.

■ I saw him yesterday, he looked very unwell.

■ I played tennis every day last week. It was great fun but I was exhausted by the
end of the week!

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Reviewing the past continuous

■ We use the past continuous to describe actions in the past that were in
progress while another action was started and completed.
■ These actions or events can also be thought of as unfinished at that moment
in time.
■ You can see some examples of this tense below.

■ We were walking to
school when…
■ Often the past continuous tense is used in
■ Sarah was sitting on the conjunction with the past simple to mark a
sofa when… contrast in time. We will find out more about
this on the next slide!
■ I was looking everywhere
for my purse while…

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Using the past simple and the past continuous to tell a story

■ We can use the past simple and the past continuous to tell stories about the
past.
■ Often we use the past continuous tense to tell about an action that was
continuous, or going on in the background, whilst we use the past simple to
describe the action or events.

■ It was raining so we didn’t go to

the beach. Instead, we went
bowling!

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Grammar examples

■ Here are some more examples of how you can use the past simple and the
past continuous together to tell a story!

Kathy was sitting on the sofa when the

phone rang. She got up to answer it.

The dog was running along the

pavement towards me. I was scared
and ran into a shop.

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Recognising the past simple and past continuous

Read the text on the next slide

together with your teacher.
Can you recognise which parts of
the text use the past simple and
which parts use the past
continuous?

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Read and recognise

We were walking to the cinema when

we heard a loud noise. Katie turned
around and screamed. ‘Look’, she
yelled, ‘there’s an escaped tiger running
towards us!’ I turned around and
looked towards where she was
pointing. Katie was shaking with fear
but I had to laugh. ‘Katie’, I said, ‘that’s
not a tiger, that’s Rosie, my next door
neighbour’s cat!’

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Complete the sentences

Look at the cards below. They all show the first half of a sentence using
the past continuous. Can you complete each sentence using the past
simple tense? Make each sentence as interesting as you can.

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Storytelling time

Think about the story about the

tiger that you read earlier in the
lesson. Can you try to tell this story
from the perspective of the
tiger/cat, and also from the
perspective of Katie? Use the past
simple and past continuous.
Afterwards, tell your teacher a story
about a time you got surprised!

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Reviewing the past perfect

■ The past perfect is used to refer to an event that happened before another
event in the past.

We often use the past perfect in conjunction with the past simple.

■ Jenny had already left before we woke up in the morning.

■ They had eaten all the cake by the time we arrived.

■ Most of the items had been sold by the time we arrived.

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Reviewing the past perfect continuous

■ The past perfect continuous tense is used to describe an action that started
in the past and then continued up to another moment in the past.

■ She had been waiting for her

brother for over an hour. When he
finally arrived she was very angry.

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Review the past perfect and the past perfect continuous

■ Look at the examples of the past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses
used below. Can you understand the meaning of each sentence?

By the time he was 40 years old he had

been working at the company for 20
years.

He had been working there for 20 years

but he had never been offered a
promotion.

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Complete the sentences using the past perfect. Be inventive!

1. By the time I was ten years old

____________________________________________________
2. By lunchtime yesterday ____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________
3. By the time we arrived ____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________
4. Before she left ____________________________________________________

____________________________________________________
5. By the time the summer came ____________________________________________________

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Identifying the different tenses

Read the text on the next page.

Can you identify all the different
past tenses used?

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The birthday party

He was feeling nervous. He had never

planned a birthday party before, let
alone a surprise party and now today
was the big day! He hoped everyone
would arrive on time. He wondered if
his mother would guess the plans. She
had been talking about her sixtieth
birthday since last summer. She had
never had a big party for her birthday
before. He wanted to make sure that
she would always remember this
special occasion.

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Describe the big picture

Use the picture below as inspiration to make at least 6 sentences that use both
the past perfect and the past perfect continuous. You might want to use some
of these verbs: wait, plan, work, say, prepare, threaten

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Using all the past tenses to tell a story

■ When we tell stories about the past we often need to use all of the different past
tenses to express ourselves and tell a narrative.
■ The different tenses help us to define the moments at which certain events
happened and place them in an order.

■ She was tired. She had been

walking for a long time. Her father
had warned her that it was a long
route, but she had not listened.
Suddenly, she saw something in
front of her. There was someone
else walking just ahead of her on
the same path!

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 Some more examples

■ Can you identify the tenses used in each of the examples below?

Mark had been watching the football so

he had not seen the dog eat the
important papers.

She was waiting for the train. It was the

middle of June and it was warm
outside.

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Describe the pictures

Use the pictures below as inspiration and make a sentence for each
using the past perfect continuous and the past perfect.

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Can you continue the story for at least ten sentences?

? ? ? ?? ?
I had been waiting

? ?
? ?
for years and
?
finally the big day

? ? ?
? ? ?
had arrived….

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Talking about past experiences

Now it’s time to practise using all the past tenses together!
Tell stories to your teacher about the topics on the cards below.
Use as many of the past tenses as you can when telling your stories.

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Film, TV and books

Think of the plot of your

favourite book, film or TV
programme.
Can you retell this story to your
teacher using the past tenses?

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Reflect on the goals

Go back to the second slide of the lesson and check

if you have achieved all the goals of the lesson.

yes no

_______________________________ _______________________________
_______________________________ _______________________________

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Reflect on this lesson

Think about everything you have seen in this lesson.

What were the most difficult activities or words? The easiest?

+ _______________________________
_______________________________

+ _______________________________
_______________________________

– _______________________________
_______________________________

– _______________________________
_______________________________
If you have time, go over
the most difficult slides again

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Homework

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Homework

In this class you reviewed the past simple, the past continuous,
past perfect and the past perfect continuous! Can you make a
sentence in each tense using each of the verbs below.
That means 24 sentences in total!

eat walk

see wear

rain play

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Homework writing activity

Show off your creative writing skills! Write a story and practise
using all the past tenses covered in this lesson in your writing.
The story should be on the topic, a holiday I will never forget. Try
to write at least 400 words!

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