The woman opened the washing machine. She screamed. She put the cat in the washing machine.

It doesn’t make much sense, does it? Why would the woman scream and then put the cat in the washing machine? That’s because when we tell stories in English, we have to use a variety of tenses to indicate in what order the events happened.

Let’s look at that story again, but this time with a crucial difference:

The woman opened the washing machine. She screamed. She’d put the cat in the washing machine.

With just the addition of an auxiliary verb (had) to the final sentence, it now makes sense. The woman screamed because she had put the cat in the washing machine earlier in the story. In other words, the final sentence was actually the first action to occur in time. If we put these events in chronological order it looks like this:

The woman put the cat in the washing machine.
She opened the door of the washing machine.
She screamed (because the cat was already in there).

This article will look at how we use four different tenses to tell stories in English: the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect simple and the past perfect continuous. When we use these “narrative tenses” together, we can tell a story without having to place every event in a strict chronological order.

So why do we do this in English? When we are telling a story, we often hold back information to make it more interesting. This is similar to the way you would hold back the punchline of a joke until the end so that it is a surprise to the listener. We also sometimes tell the most interesting information first and then go back and give background information so that the story makes sense. Furthermore, we often tell stories from the point-of-view of the person in the story. In the example above, we are telling it from the point-of-view of the cat-owner who gets a surprise when she opens the door of the washing machine.

The four narrative tenses

Firstly, let’s look at how we make these four tenses:

Past simple: (subject) + (past simple verb)

Example: I finally arrived at Pete’s house.

Past continuous: (subject) + (was/were) + (verb-ing)

Example: Pete was standing in front of me.

Past perfect simple: (subject) + (had) + (past participle verb)

Example: He had totally forgotten.

Past perfect continuous: (subject) + (had) + (been) + (verb-ing)

Example: It had been raining for several hours.

Now let’s look at a longer story which shows how these different forms work together:

It had been raining for several hours when I finally arrived at Pete’s house and I was soaking wet. I pressed the doorbell and waited for someone to answer. The door suddenly opened and Pete was standing in front of me. He looked tired. He told me he’d been working all night on a big work project and had totally forgotten we were supposed to be meeting today.

What happened/was happening at the time of the story and what happened/was happening before the time of the story. Answer these questions:

At the time of the story, was it raining?
At the time of the story, was Pete standing in front of the narrator?
At the time of the story, did Pete look tired?
At the time of the story, was Pete working on the big work project?

We can see from this story that the past simple and past continuous tenses are used to describe actions/events which take place at the time of the story. The past perfect simple and past perfect continuous are used to describe events which happen before the time of the story.

How to use each of these tenses

Look at these four rules for determining which of these tenses you should be using:

Past simple actions are often used to describe the main events of the story. They usually begin and end within the confines of the story. For example: “I finally arrived.”
Past continuous actions are also at the time of the story. They can start before the time of the story and continue after the story has ended, or they can be completed within the confines of the story. For example: “Pete was standing in front of me.”
Past perfect simple actions happen before the time of the story and are not continuous in nature (they do not involve duration or repetition). For example: “He had totally forgotten.”
Past perfect continuous actions also happen before the time of the story and involve some type of duration or repetition. For example: “It had been raining”.

Practice: The case of the lost sunglasses

Look at this story and change the past simple/continuous verbs into the past perfect simple or past perfect continuous tenses where necessary. There may be more than one possible answer.

I was walking along Old Bond Street when it suddenly occurred to me. I left my sunglasses in the museum! I turned around and started looking for a taxi to take me back there. They were a birthday present from a very good friend of mine a few years earlier and I didn’t want to lose them! I tried to remember where I could have left them. Maybe in the ancient antiquities room? Yes, that was right! A tour guide was giving a presentation on Viking coins and I put them down on a bench while I listened to him.

As soon as the taxi arrived back at the museum, I jumped out and ran up the steps. I was out of breath by the time I made it inside. I asked the lady in reception whether anybody handed a pair of sunglasses in to lost property but she shook her head and said “no.” I ran back to the room with the Viking coins and began searching around where I was sitting. But my sunglasses were not there! Exasperated, I sat back down on the bench I sat at earlier and put my hands up to my head. Of course, as my fingers reached my temple I felt the familiar metal frames of my sunglasses. They were on my head the whole time!

The case of the lost sunglasses - model answer

Now let’s look at the same story with the addition of narrative tenses. Is it the same as your version?

I was walking along Old Bond Street when it suddenly occurred to me. I had left my sunglasses in the museum! I turned around and started looking for a taxi to take me back there. They had been a birthday present from a very good friend of mine a few years earlier and I didn’t want to lose them! I tried to remember where I could have left them. Maybe in the ancient antiquities room? Yes, that was right! A tour guide had been giving a presentation on Viking coins and I had put them down on a bench while I had been listening to him.

As soon as the taxi arrived back at the museum, I jumped out and ran up the steps. I was out of breath by the time I made it inside. I asked the lady in reception whether anybody had handed a pair of sunglasses in to lost property but she shook her head and said “no.” I ran back to the room with the Viking coins and began searching around where I had been sitting. But my sunglasses were not there! Exasperated, I sat back down on the bench and put my hands up to my head. Of course, as my fingers reached my temple I felt the familiar metal frames of my sunglasses. They had been on my head the whole time!

Compare the two versions of this story. Do you understand why the past perfect simple and continuous tenses have been used in the second version?

Now have a go yourself!

Have a go at writing your own story using narrative tenses. Start simple until you feel confident using the different tenses together and then you can start adding a more complex narrative.

Image Sources

Hero Image by Andrew (CC BY 2.0)
Sunglasses by torbakhopper (CC BY-ND 2.0)