IELTS Grammar Topics
Using the Narrative Tenses to Tell Stories
Using the Narrative Tenses to Tell Stories in the Speaking Test
There are 4 narrative tenses: the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect simple, and the past perfect continuous.
You can use the 4 narrative tenses in IELTS Speaking, especially when you tell stories about your experiences. You often need to tell such stories in Speaking Part 2.
Look at this Speaking Part 2 question which asks you to describe a problem you had while driving:
Now, let’s look at a model answer that uses a mix of the 4 narrative tenses effectively.
What do you notice about the tenses and the movements in time?
The story gives the main events in the past simple, but regularly uses the other narrative tenses to give background information, say what was happening around the main events, and to move backwards and forwards in time.
Exercise 1:
Look at the highlighted verbs in the model and try to find:
a) the regular past simple
b) the irregular past simple
c) 2 x the past continuous
d) 2 x the past perfect simple
e) 2 x the past perfect continuous
Now, let’s take a look at each of these tenses, how they’re formed, and when to use them, beginning with the past simple tense.
Narrative Tense 1: Past Simple
The past simple is the most important tense for telling stories because we use it to describe the main events. It also moves the story forward because we use it to describe consecutive events - these are events that follow one after the other, moving forward in time.
For example, the model answer uses the past simple to describe 5 consecutive events, 'I reached the traffic jam', then 'I had to slam on the brakes', then 'I turned on the radio', then 'I heard the news', then 'I sat in the traffic'.
Narrative Tense 2: Past Continuous
The past continuous is formed with ‘was’ or ‘were’ + verb + ‘ing’.
When telling stories, we use the past continuous for two reasons. Firstly, we can use it to describe background actions or activities. These are things that were happening around the main event. For example, “it was Sunday evening, and it was raining heavily”. “It was raining” was happening in the background around the main events of the story.
Secondly, we use the past continuous to describe a past action that was happening (or in progress) when another action interrupted (or stopped) it.
It's important to remember that you cannot use a time phrase with the past continuous, so it would be wrong to say, "I was driving home for 2 hours when I suddenly hit heavy traffic".
Narrative Tense 3: Past Perfect Simple
The next narrative tense is the past perfect simple. It’s formed with ‘had’ + past participle.
The past perfect must be used to talk about an earlier past. We use the past perfect to talk about an action that happened before an event that was already in the past. So, the past perfect is usually combined with the past simple. The past simple puts the story in the past, then the past perfect takes us further back in time to an earlier past.
We also use the past perfect simple to emphasise that an action was completed. This is a key difference with the past perfect continuous.
Exercise 2:
Have a look at the two examples below. Which one shows that the action was completed?
1. I had made 5 slides for my presentation when you called
2. I had been making slides for my presentation when you called
Narrative Tense 4: Past Perfect Continuous
The past perfect continuous is formed by had + been + verb-ing.
The past perfect continuous tense emphasises that an action continued over a period of time. In the model we saw, “I had been visiting my friend… over the weekend”. The past perfect continuous is used here because the activity continued over a period of time - in this case, the weekend.
Sometimes we use the past perfect continuous for an action that was in progress when another action interrupted it. In our example, we saw this with, “I had been driving for about 2 hours when I reached the traffic jam”.
The past perfect continuous emphasises the duration of the action that was interrupted, and it is very often used with a time phrase. We saw this in our example, “I had been driving for about 2 hours”.
Narrative Tenses: Past Continuous or Past Perfect Continuous?
We use the past perfect continuous to talk about actions that happened before another action in the past, while we use the past continuous to talk about actions that happened around the time of an action in the past.
However, both can be used for actions that were interrupted, or stopped, by another action in the past. The key difference is that the past perfect continuous emphasises length of time, and can be used with time phrases such as 2 hours/ a long time/ a few days. The past continuous tells us nothing about duration (length of time), and cannot be used with time phrases.
Now, it's time for more practice. Have a look at the following exercises and test your understanding of the 4 narrative tenses:
Exercise 3:
Past Perfect Simple vs. Past Perfect Continuous
Exercise 4:
Past Continuous vs. Past Perfect Continuous
Exercise 5:
Practice the 4 Narrative Tenses
Answer Key:
Exercise 1:
a. happened
b. got
c. was raining/ was driving
d. had left/ had been
e. had been visiting/ had been driving
Exercise 2:
Only sentence 1, in the past perfect simple shows the action was completed.
Exercise 3:
1. She called the police because someone had stolen her bag. (completed)
2. The roads were dangerous because it had been snowing all morning. (duration)
3. He arrived late to the meeting because his car had broken down.(completed)
4. By the time Sarah arrived at the station, the train had already left. (completed)
5. He was upset because he had been waiting for the delivery for over two hours. (duration)
6. The children had been playing outside for hours, so they were covered in mud. (duration)
7. We had finished lunch when our friends arrived. (completed)
8. I could see that they had been arguing from the expressions on their faces. (interrupted)
9. She had already written three chapters of her novel by the time her editor called. (completed)
Exercise 4:
1. a) I had been working hard on the project for weeks so I was very tired. (duration)
b) I was working on the project when my boss called.
2. a) When I walked in I could see that she had been crying. (earlier past) b) She was crying when I walked in. (around action)
3. a) Even though I was studying several hours a day, I still had time to go to the gym. (around action)
b) Even though I had been studying several hours per day, I still failed the test. (earlier past)
4. a) I was feeling unwell so I left work early.
b) I had been feeling unwell for days so I went to see a doctor. (duration)
5. a) John had been shopping all morning, so he was exhausted. (duration)
b) John was shopping at the supermarket when he realised that he didn't have his wallet. (around action)
6. a) Her alarm clock had been ringing for 10 minutes before she woke up. (duration)
b) Her alarm clock was ringing when she woke up. (around action)
7. a) Jane had been living in the same house for 30 years when she moved. (duration)
b) Jane was living with her parents when they decided to move. (around action)
Exercise 5:
A few months ago, I had (completion) one of the best meals of my life. It wasn’t planned at all, I had been wandering (duration) through the town centre doing some shopping for a few hours when I came across a small Italian restaurant that looked very busy, so I decided to give it a try.
As soon as I sat down, the waiter brought over a menu. Everything looked so good that I had no idea what to choose. While I was trying (around action) to decide, the waiter told me about the restaurant specialty, which was a dish that the owner’s grandmother had taught (completion) him how to make. Apparently, she had been perfecting (duration) the recipe for years. That sold it for me, and I immediately ordered it.
When the food arrived, it was a beautiful plate of homemade gnocchi with a rich, creamy truffle sauce. I had never tasted (completion) anything like it. The flavours were incredible and even though it was a big portion, I finished it in minutes.