Narrative tenses

Form

Subject + past tense
He went to the station.
Subject + be (past) + verb -ing
He was going to the station.
Subject + had + past participle
He had gone to the station.
Subject + had + been + verb -ing
He had been going to the station.

What are narrative tenses?

Narrative tenses are used to talk about past events and to tell stories

Narrative tenses are four tenses that we often use for talking about past events.

The most common of these is the past simple.

The other three tenses, the past continuous, the past perfect simple and the past perfect continuous, can help us to say what we want more efficiently.

It is useful to look at these tenses together in the context of the function narrating - relating past events.

Narrative tenses in a written story

Narrative tenses are common in written stories, especially when they describe action

Bond opened the door very slowly, looked carefully around the room and walked in. The window was open and the curtains were blowing in the wind. Clearly someone had left in a hurry.

Past simple
opened, looked, walked, was

Past continuous
were blowing

Past perfect
had left

The first three verbs - opened, looked and walked - are a sequence: they are written in the order that the actions took place. We know this because they are in the past simple.

The past continuous verb, were blowing, shows an action in progress: the curtains started blowing before he walked into the room and continued to blow while he was there.

The last verb, had left, shows an action that happened before he walked in.
If we used the past simple for the last verb, the meaning would be different:

The window was open, the curtains were blowing. Someone left in a hurry.

This suggests that the person left after Bond walked in.

Narrative tenses in conversation

Narrative tenses are common in conversation when we talk about past experiences

David: I saw a UFO once. Well, I think it was one.
Carol: Oh yeah?
David: Yeah, really. I was in the country - in Yorkshire - on the moors...
Carol: What were you doing there?
David: Oh, I was visiting some friends. They'd rented a cottage and we'd gone to stay with them.

Past simple
saw, was

Past continuous
(What) were (you) doing? was visiting

Past perfect
they'd rented, we'd gone

The first verb saw is used in an introductory sentence.

The verb was visiting shows an action that started before the event (seeing the UFO) happened and was in progress. It is background information.

The verbs had rented and had gone show actions that happened before the main event. They are also background information,

ESL quizzes for narrative tenses