Narrative Tenses
When narrating, we generally use past tenses that we also call narrative tenses:
The past continuous, the past perfect simple and the past simple.
In Malamti village, we came across an Algerian search-and-rescue team who were trying to recover the bodies of four people from the same family.
"The neighbours helped us pour water on the fire to cool it down. But no government organisation came to rescue them. And the fire was burning for more than a week." Village to village, we were hearing the same frustration and anger directed at the authorities.
Four hours drive from the capital, we arrived in Bahrabise. The scale of the disaster suddenly became even more apparent. No building had been left untouched. A thousand people used to live in the area but almost half the population had fled. The rest of the people now lived in a makeshift camp on the side of a mountain.
Adapted from BBC News Report by Yalda Hakim
Answer the questions according to the text:
- Where did the earthquake happen?
- Whom did the BBC reporters come across?
- What were they doing?
- What had the population fled?
- In our sentence, there are two past actions:
An action in progress “were walking” and a short one “came across”.
The long action was interrupted by the short one:
A:What happened while they were walking in the streets of Malamti village ?
B:They came across an Algerian search-and team while they were walking in the streets of Malamti village.
We can combine the past continuous and past simple with the time conjunctions :
while, when and as.
→He was waiting at the bus-stop when he saw John.
Past continuous when past simple
→I hurt my foot as I was walking in the street.
Past simple as past continuous
→I hurt my foot while I was walking in the street.
Past simple + while+ past continuous
→She was watching T.V while I was reading a book.
Past continuous +while +past continuous
How to use the time conjunctions:
1.“while“and “as” are always followed by the past continuous
As / While he was walkingdown the street, he slipped and broke his leg.
Or
He slipped and broke his leg as/while he was walking downthe street.
- “While “is also used to describe two simultaneous actions happening at the same time:
WhileI was sleeping, they were dancing.
Or
They were dancing whileI was sleeping.
- “When”is generally used to introduce the past simple.
A: What were they doingwhen you arrived?
B: They were working when I arrived.
To describe a past action in progress we use the past continuous, and to describe a past action that was completed or brief we use the past simple
|
Tenses |
Affirmative form |
Negative form |
Interrogative form |
|
Past continuous |
I was doing it. She was doing it. He was doing it. It was doing it. We were doing it. You were doing it. They were doing it. |
I wasn’t doing it. She wasn’t doing it . He wasn’t doing it. It wasn’t doing it. We weren’t doing it. You weren’t doing it. They weren’t doing it.
|
Was I doing it? Was she doing it? Was he doing it? Was it doing it? Were we doing it? Were you do doing it? Were they doing it? |
|
Past simple |
I did. You did. She did it. It did it. We did it. You did it. They did it. |
I didn’t do it. She didn’t do it. He didn’t do it . It didn’t do . We didn’t do it. You didn’t do it. They didn’t do it. |
Did I do it? Did she do it? Did he do it? Did it do it? Did we do it? Did you do it? Did they do it? |
Verb “do” (faire) is used instead of stem of the verb, the auxiliary of the past simple is “did”, the auxiliary “do/did” has no meaning.
People had fled the area before rescuers arrived.
In our sentence there two past actions:
Action one finished before action two started :
A: What had happened before rescuers arrived?
B: People had fled the area before rescuers arrived.
We combine the past perfect simple with the past simple using the following time conjunctions:
Before, after, as soon as, when
“After / when / as soon as” generally introduce the past perfect simple.
“Before” introduces the past simple.
- They arrived in Paris .They took the underground.(when/As soon as)
→As soon as they had arrived in Paris, they took the underground.
As soon as +past perfect simple, past simple.
Action1 , Action 2
Or
They took the underground as soon as they had arrived in Paris.
→When they had arrived in Paris , they took the underground.
When+Action1, Action 2
Or
They took the underground when they had arrived in Paris.
- They had lunch. They went out. (after/before)
→After they had had lunch, they went out.
After + Action1, Action2
Or
They went out after they had had lunch.
→Before they went out, they had had lunch.
Before+ Action2, Action1
Or
They had had lunch before they went out.
We can also use “when” to introduce action 2 in the past simple:
When you arrived what had your husband done?
When I arrived home, my husband had already cooked dinner
It means: First, my husband cooked dinner. Then, I arrived
- I didn’t want to go to the movies with my friends because I had seen the film already.
- I arrived very late at the party. All my friends had already gone home.
- I was very tired as I hadn’t slept well for several days.
When we want to show that action 1 happened before action 2, we put the verb of action 1 in the past perfect simple and acttion2 in the past simple.
|
TENSE |
AFFIRMATIVE FORM |
NEGATIVE FORM |
INTERROGATIVE FORM |
|
Past perfect simple |
I had done it I’d done it. He had done it He’d done it. You had done. You’d done it We had done it We’d done it. They had done it. They’d done it. |
I hadn’t done it. He hadn’t done it. You hadn’t done it. We hadn’t done it. They hadn’t done it. |
Had I done it? Had he done it? Had you done it? Had we done it? Had they done it? |
- إختبارات
- 9
- الأجوبة الصحيحة
- False
- الأجوبة الخاطئة
- False
- مجموع النقاط
- False
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