2022-02-13 08:13:59
1. Narrative Tenses
Past Simple
Past Continuous
Past Perfect
Past Perfect Continuous
USED TO/WOULD
COULD/WAS ABLE
TO/SUCCEED IN/MANAGED TO
PAST MODALS
2. Past Simple
• An action in the past in the specific time (last
month, 6 months ago and etc.)
• For a single repeated action in the past: I went
to work by bus every day.
• Use when you tell about the main event or
the sequence of events happened one after
another
Ex.: I picked up the children from the school and
drove to the supermarket. Later we altogether
made the wonderful dinner.
3. Past Continuous
• To describe the scene or a background
to a story (use words: when, while)
• Ex. I was having the shower when
suddenly somebody knocked on the door.
• activities or situations that were in
progress when another action took
place
We were discussing the final question
when my computer broke down.
4. Past Perfect Simple
• Past actions that took place before
the main past events in a story
Ex. I arrived at the office and I
realized that I had left the stove
turned on.
Ex. He looked everywhere but he
couldn’t find the book he had
promised to lend to his friend.
5. Past Perfect Continuous
• Past actions in progress that took
place before the main past events in
a story
• Ex. He didn’t hear the phone,
because he had been reading.
• Ex. He was tired in the evening
because he had been working all day
in the garden.
6.
Cris’s car crashed because
he was driving too fast and
he had drunk a lot of wine
before the accident.
7. Used to + verb
• Habits and states that took place in the past
but do not happen or exist now
• Use when time is not specified: when I was
younger, in my childhood, many years ago…
• Ex. I used to have very long hair. (Now I have
short hair)
• Ex. He used to live in the USA when he was 10.
(Now he lives in Spain)
• Ex. I used to have problems with my
computer. (repeated actions)
8. STATES: USE ONLY WITH USED TO + verb
9. Examples:
• + I used to travel when I was
younger.
• - I didn’t use to travel when I was
younger.
• Did you use to travel …?
10. Would + verb
• Habits that took place in the past but do not
happen now. (nostalgia)
• Ex. When I was young, I would sit in the park
drinking a cup of coffee.
DO NOT USE WOULD with a state!
I used to like Madonna. NOT I would like
Madonna
! If you describe a sequence of habitual events,
use used to + verb for the first verb, and then
would to the subsequent verb.
11. COULD or WAS/WERE ABLE TO
• the possibility of doing something in the past
• the ability or inability (not succeeding in
something) in the past
Ex. I could swim when I was younger. (ability,
NOT success)
I was able to ride a horse.
He couldn’t remember her name.
They weren’t able to finish their work by
that time.
12. USE ONLY! WAS/WERE ABLE TO
• to talk about success in achieving
something at a specific time in the
past.
Ex. I was able to reach him by phone.
I couldn’t reach him by phone.
(NOT I could reach him)
We were able to get to the top of
the mountain.
13. MANAGE TO/SUCCEED IN
• ability or success in achieving (or not
achieving) something at a specific time in
the past
I managed to do everything which was
planned.
I succeeded in contacting him at once.
I didn’t manage to + infinitive
I didn’t succeed in + gerund
14. MUST/HAVE TO
MUST in the past -> HAD TO
use when there is a necessity to do
something at a specific time in the
past
Ex. I had to leave the meeting earlier.
Did you have to leave the meeting
earlier?
15. could/may/might have + V3/ed
could/may/might have + V3/ed
use could have/may have/might have to
talk about possible actions of imagined
past events.
If you hadn’t told me the direction, I
could have been/might have been lost.
use couldn’t have to talk about
impossible things.
His car wasn’t outside. He couldn’t have
been at home.
16. must have + V3/ed
• use must have + past
participle to express a
deduction/speculation about
something in the past
• Ex. He didn’t answer me. He
must have been very
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