Grammar Check

It’s in the past

Many of the stories you will tell will focus on past events. That’s why a good knowledge of past tenses is useful for storytelling. Your audience will know exactly what happened and when.

1. Past simple

Use the past simple to talk about events that happened at a specific time in the past or to describe a situation that existed in the past: I met Paula at an event in Spain. I lived in Barcelona for three years.

I didn’t see him at the event. Did you expect that to happen?

Use the past simple to show that certain events or actions followed each other:

We left our jobs, moved to Scotland and opened a whisky bar. Suddenly, he stood up, picked up his things and walked out the door. We never saw him again. 2. Past continuous

We use the past continuous for situations that continued for a temporary period around a specific time in the past:

Were you driving the car at the time of the accident?

You can use the past continuous to show that certain activities continued over the same period of time: We were living in France, my partner was working in Switzerland and I was trying to start my own consulting business. And the kids were going crazy!

3. Combine two tenses

The past continuous and past simple often occur in the same sentence. The continuous refers to an ongoing action or situation during which a shorter action or event occurs:

We were travelling through India when I spotted the perfect material for our clothes.

4. Add the past perfect or past perfect continuous

With the past perfect, we create a context that is further in the past than some other past action or situation (which is in the past tense): I had left the company before the problems really started.

Use the past perfect continuous to refer to an ongoing situation that had started before some later past situation or event:

We had been looking for new offices for over a year when I discovered this empty building. It was perfect.

I had been waiting for the phone call for three hours when he finally called to tell me the news. We had won the award after all!

What happened? What had happened before that?