“The green hand was moving towards me when suddenly there was a blue flash and a man jumped onto the stairs next to me”. Past continuous is the long or repeated action which is interrupted by a short, quick past simple action. “I was walking home when something strange happened.”Īlso, we use it to sequence events when it is combined with the past simple. It’s often used to describe the general situation at the beginning of a story. Use: To describe longer or repeated actions. “We were talking about my Swiss bank account when suddenly she pulled me close and kissed me again.” “When I woke up, and owl hooted.” Or “An owl hooted when I woke up”.įorm: was/were + -ing E.g. We can also use conjunctions to link up clauses with past simple verb forms. “First I finished work, then I went to the pub, after that I had a few pints, then I sat down by the river and then I fell asleep, after that the moon moved, and then I woke up and then an owl hooted and after that I heard a splash and then a monster tried to grab my leg and after that the Doctor rescued me and then he disappeared, and finally I went home. We use ‘then’, ‘after that’, ‘first’ and ‘finally’ to link them up. Use: To explain the main events of the story in sequence. “We met on holiday, we talked about art and music, we fell in love, I asked her to marry me and when she said yes I kissed her passionately on the lips.” Listen to just the story again here įorm: the simple past form of the verb. I stood up, looked at the moon and quickly walked home. What on earth were Moon Goblins, and who was the mysterious Doctor? And why had he saved me? I was determined to find the answers to these strange questions. I was trying to understand what he meant, when there was another blue flash and I closed my eyes.
I was trying to think of something else to say when he turned around and said, “Watch the stars at night, and be careful of the full moon”. “Don’t fall asleep by the river when there’s a full moon”, he said “The Moon Goblins will get you.” I’d never heard of moon goblins before. There was a bright flash and the monster hissed and disappeared. He shouted “Get Back!” and pointed something at the monster in the water. He was wearing strange clothes and he had a crazy look in his eyes. Someone jumped onto the stairs next to me. The cold green hand was moving closer and closer when suddenly there was a blue flash and a strange noise from behind me. I’d never been so scared in my whole life. It was a long green arm and it was stretching out from the water to grab my leg. Something was coming out of the water and moving towards me. Something terrible and frightening, and unlike anything I’d ever seen before. I looked down at the water and saw something. I rubbed my eyes and started to get up, when suddenly I heard a splash. The wind was blowing and an owl hooted in a tree above me. When I woke up, the moon had moved behind a cloud and it was very dark and cold. I felt very tired so I closed my eyes and after a few minutes, I fell asleep. I sat on some steps very close to the water’s edge and looked up at the big yellow moon and wondered if it really was made of cheese. I was tired and lonely and I’d just had a few pints of beer in my local pub, so I decided to stop by the riverside and look at the moon for a while. There was a large full moon in the sky and everything was quiet. It was late at night and I’d had a long and difficult day at work. Last night I was walking home next to the river Thames, when something strange happened to me. Subscribe to Luke’s English Podcast to improve your English every day, and have fun in the process! Add your email address to the mailing list on the right of this page, or subscribe using iTunes.
You can then transfer what you’ve learned and remembered from the story when you talk about something else. If you like you can try to remember the story and repeat it to yourself until you’re using all the tenses correctly.
Listen to the story, and notice the different verb forms being used. Make your descriptions more detailed and colourful!īelow you can read the mystery story from the podcast, and then grammar details and a tense review exercise. Use this podcast to help you deal with all of those things, and then start using narrative tenses fluently whenever you describe something. To master the use of these tenses you have to deal with their form, their use and their pronunciation – both for listening and speaking. We use these tenses to sequence stories about the past. You can test yourself with these fun irregular verbs quizzes.This podcast is about narrative tenses (past simple, past continuous & past perfect – see details below). Of course, there are many others, but these are the more common irregular verbs. This is a list of some irregular verbs in English. Learn English : Vocabulary : Word Classes : Verbs : Irregular Irregular Verbs List