How to use the past perfect to build narratives
Following on from my article about using the past perfect to demonstrate sequences, let’s look at how it can build an effective narrative. The past perfect can help create atmosphere, feeding new information into a narrative at more flexible times. The past perfect is...Creating past event sequences with the past perfect
To give a little structure to the different examples of past tenses uses I’ve highlighted in some of my narrative articles, here’s a quick explanation of how the past perfect can be used to create past event sequences (adapted from The English Tenses Practical Grammar...Past tenses exercise: past simple vs past perfect
Want to test your understanding of when to use the past simple or the past perfect? These two exercises test your understanding of which tense to choose in individual sentences. Complete the following sentences choosing between the past simple and past perfect tenses,...All the English tenses: timeline infographic
There are 12 basic tenses in the English language. These are the most common grammatical forms for expressing time in English. It can help to view the different time expressions on one timeline, so I have created a diagram to compare all the English tenses, below....Want to Master English?
ELB has produced a series of bestselling English guides, available from all major retailers, with over 40,000 copies sold worldwide. Click a cover to learn more!
