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Narrative tenses

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Narrative tenses are verb tenses that are used to talk about the past. They are often found in stories and descriptions of past events, such as personal anecdotes.

The following are examples of narrative tenses:
Past simple - 'We left on a rainy day' Past continuous - 'It was pouring down even at midday' Past perfect - 'It had rained off and on for ten days' Past perfect continuous - 'We had been waiting to escape for what seemed ages'

In the classroom
Activities used to practise narrative tenses include gap fills, dictations, story writing and reading, ordering jumbled text, and re-writing events starting at the end.

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