Use B1+ exercises to practice all past tenses and narrative tenses. Get better at telling stories with clear grammar lessons and quizzes.
Narrative Tenses: All Past Tenses Exercises
When we tell stories, talk about things that happened in the past, or write narratives, we use narrative tenses. At the B1+ level, it’s important to use different past tenses together to show how things changed over time, how they were before, and how they are now.
The Main Past Tenses in Narratives
We usually use more than one past tense when we tell stories.
Past Simple
The past simple is used to talk about the main things that happened in a story. These things happen in the story.
Example:
I woke up, got dressed, and left the house.
Past Continuous
When something else happened, the past continuous is used to talk about actions that were already happening or actions that were still happening.
Example:
I was walking to work when I saw an accident.
Past continuous often sets the scene.
Past Perfect
The past perfect shows that one action happened before another action in the past.
Example:
She had already left when I arrived.
This tense makes it less likely that people will get confused about the order of events.
Past Perfect Continuous
The past perfect continuous looks at how long something happened before another past event.
Example:
They had been waiting for an hour before the bus arrived.
Using Narrative Tenses Together
A good story uses a mix of tenses:
Example:
I was driving home when I realised I had forgotten my phone. I had been thinking about work all day.
Every tense has a clear job in the story.
Time Expressions in Narratives
Common time expressions include:
when, while, as, before, after, suddenly, already, by the time
Example:
By the time we arrived, the show had started.
Things You Shouldn’t Do
- Using the past simple instead of the past perfect for actions that happened in the past.
- Using one tense too much and not using others.
- Not changing the tenses to make the order clear.
Using narrative tenses will help you tell clear and interesting stories in English.
- Use the past simple for main events.
- Use past continuous for actions that happened in the past.
- Use the past perfect and past perfect continuous for things that happened before.
If you learn how to use narrative tenses correctly, your spoken and written English will be more accurate, natural, and interesting.
