Narrative Tenses

TC
18 minutes ago
5 min read

🕰️ How to Tell Stories in English

When you tell a story in English, you don’t just need the past simple. There are special tenses that help your listener understand what happened first, what was already happening, and what came after. These are called narrative tenses. Let’s look at them step by step.

The Four Main Narrative Tenses

Past Simple – for the main events, the backbone of the story.
Example: “She walked into the room.”
Past Continuous – for background actions or things in progress.
Example: “People were talking when she entered.”
Past Perfect – for something that happened before the main event.
Example: “She had left her bag at home.”
Past Perfect Continuous – for longer background actions before the story.
Example: “She had been waiting for over an hour before he arrived.”

A Mini-Story with Narrative Tenses

Read this short story. Notice how different tenses work together:

Last Saturday, I decided to visit my friend Anna. When I arrived at her house, she was cooking dinner. She had already prepared a chocolate cake, and the kitchen smelled amazing.

While she was chopping vegetables, she told me that she had been working all day and was really tired. Suddenly, the phone rang, and she ran to answer it.

1. 📻 The Radio in the Attic

When I was cleaning my grandmother’s attic, I found an old radio. It had been sitting there for decades, covered in dust. I was about to throw it away when it suddenly switched on by itself. A man’s voice was speaking in perfect English, giving the weather forecast… for 1962. I had never heard anything so strange in my life.

2. 🎨 The Painting That Changed

One night, I was walking through a gallery after closing time. I had been helping a friend who was preparing an exhibition. Suddenly, I noticed that one of the portraits was smiling at me. I was sure the woman had looked serious only a few minutes before. I rubbed my eyes, but when I looked again, her smile had already disappeared.

3. 🕰️ The Clock Without Time

My uncle once owned a huge grandfather clock. It always was standing in the hallway, silent. He said it had stopped before he was born. One evening, while we were having dinner, the clock began to tick. It hadn’t been moving for almost 70 years, but suddenly the hands were spinning.

4. 🚃 The Empty Train

I had been travelling across Germany when I took a night train. At first, the carriage was full of people reading, eating, and talking. When I woke up, the train was moving through the forest, but the carriage was empty. Everyone had disappeared — no luggage, no coats, no traces. I searched from one end to the other, but I never found a single person.

5. 📚 The Book That Wrote Itself

While I was studying in the library, I came across a book with no title. I opened it and saw blank pages. Disappointed, I was about to close it when words began to appear in neat handwriting. The sentences were describing me, my clothes, and even the coffee I had drunk an hour earlier. The book had been waiting for me, and I didn’t dare turn to the last page.

🌍 Lost in the City: A Narrative Tenses Adventure

It all started one evening last summer. I was travelling alone through Italy, and I had been planning my trip for months. My friends had told me a lot about Naples, so I decided to spend a few days there.

When I arrived, the city was buzzing with life. Street musicians were playing, people were eating pizza on the corners, and scooters were rushing past me. I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere.

But then something unexpected happened. I realised I had lost my wallet. I had been keeping it in my backpack pocket, but it was gone. At first, I just stood there in shock, not knowing what to do.

While I was trying to calm down, an old man approached me. He spoke no English, but he smiled and pointed at a café across the street. I followed him, and inside I found my wallet on a chair! Apparently, I had taken it out when I was paying for my coffee earlier and simply left it there.

Relieved, I thanked the man again and again. He just laughed and told me something in Italian that I couldn’t understand. Later, when I was telling the story to my friends, they explained that he probably said: “Tourists are always the same.”

Looking back, I’m glad I had lost my wallet for those few minutes. Without that, I never would have met that kind stranger or remembered the lesson: always check your seat before you leave!

🕯️ The Night the Museum Woke Up

I had never believed in ghosts before that night. The museum where I was working had always seemed perfectly normal during the day. Tourists were taking photos, children were running around the dinosaur skeleton, and the gift shop was selling plastic pharaohs and postcards. Nothing strange at all.

But one Friday evening, after the last visitor had left, I was locking the main door when I heard something. At first, I thought it was just the cleaners, but the sound was coming from the exhibition hall. It wasn’t footsteps. It was… whispering.

I slowly walked back. The lights had already been switched off, so I could only see the faint glow of the exit signs. Then I noticed movement. The giant globe in the geography section was spinning, although no one was touching it.

I almost dropped my keys. Suddenly, the whispering grew louder. I realised the voices were speaking in Latin — a language I had studied years ago at university. They were saying names, dates, fragments of old stories. I had forgotten most of my Latin, but I could still recognise the words.

And then, the strangest thing of all: the statues had climbed down from their pedestals. I swear it. The Roman general was standing by the door, the marble goddess was walking across the floor, and the busts of philosophers were turning towards me. They didn’t look angry. In fact, they looked… curious.

By the time the security guard arrived, everything had gone back to normal. The statues were standing in their usual places. The globe had stopped moving. The whispers had disappeared.

Of course, nobody believed me when I told the story. But I knew what I had seen. And ever since that night, when I have walked through the museum in the evening, I have felt that hundreds of stone eyes have been watching me, waiting for the next time the museum decides to wake up.