Understanding Narrative Tenses

Narrative tenses, including the past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous, are essential for describing past events and storytelling. The past simple is used for actions that started and completed in the past, illustrated by an example of someone recounting a terrible day. In contrast, the past continuous sets the scene by describing ongoing actions during a past event, such as someone walking to work while observing other activities. Proper usage of these tenses helps construct a clearer narrative by signaling the order and duration of actions relative to one another.