Telling a Story. Using Past Tenses

When you have to describe an event or tell something curious which happened in the past, you should use past tenses. The most common of these is the past simple. Two other tenses, past continuous and the past perfect can help us to say what we want more efficiently. However, it should be remembered that almost any story can be told using the past simple.

Bond opened the door very slowly, looked carefully around the room and walked in. The window was open and the curtains were blowing in the wind. Clearly someone had left in a hurry.

A: I saw a UFO once. Well, I think it was one.
B: Oh yeah?A: Yeah, really. I was in the country - in Yorkshire - on the moors...B: What were you doing up there?A: Oh, I was visiting some friends. They'd rented a cottage and we'd gone up to stay with them.

Now try these exercises:

Telling a story 1    Telling a story 2      Telling a story 3