English B2 · Narrative tenses
Inglés B2 Tema 1 4:01 Narración en inglés · Subtítulos en inglés + 中文 quemados en pantalla
Capítulos
Transcripción
A good story needs three tenses working together, and the memory hook is a film. The past continuous is the weather, the background in progress. The past simple is the action, event by event. The past perfect is the earlier scene the film flashes back to. The sun was shining when I left the house; I had forgotten my keys; disaster followed. Three tenses, one story, and this is how B2 writing earns its marks.
The three cameras. The past continuous films the background: the rain was falling, people were hurrying home. The past simple films the events: I opened the door and stepped out. The past perfect flashes back: I had left my umbrella at school. While and when manage the cameras: while I was walking home, my phone rang; the long action in the continuous, the interruption in the simple. The phone always rings in the middle. It has a sense of timing and no shame.
Watch the tenses work. It was raining and the streets were empty: the weather camera. I was walking home when I saw a small cat under a car: background interrupted by the event. I had never owned a pet, but I stopped: the flashback. The cat looked at me; it had chosen me, apparently. We have been inseparable ever since: the present perfect lands the story in the now, because the cat is asleep on my desk. All past simple would be grammatical, but the film would become a police report. The tenses are your camera angles.
Pause and choose. I was sleeping when the alarm rang. The long action wears the continuous, and the interruption wears the simple: the alarm-clock rule. The reversed version puts the alarm in the background and your sleep as the event, which is backwards unless you sleep extremely briefly.
Pause and choose. She was cooking while he was doing his homework. Two parallel backgrounds, both in the continuous, joined by while. The mixed versions interrupt one background with the other, and neither the dinner nor the homework deserves that.
Two guards for your stories. First, backgrounds need the continuous: it rained and the streets were empty makes the rain an event; it was raining paints the weather behind the story. Second, statives never wear the continuous, even in a story: I knew the answer, never I was knowing. And remember: dangshi and yijing are time words, but English tenses are verb forms. The verb itself must change costume.
Pause and choose. I had left my umbrella; I walked back; the gate was closed. One had sets the clock, and the story returns to the simple. Three flashbacks in a row and the reader gets dizzy, and the continuous flashbacks are a film that never stops rewinding.
Tell the story of your morning as a film. The alarm was screaming; I was dreaming about noodles; the noodles had betrayed me by being imaginary. I was running to the bus stop when I saw the bus leaving; it had seen me, and it did not care. While I was walking sadly to school, the sun came out. The cat under the car looked at me. We understood each other.
Pause for four checks. I was walking home when I saw the cat: background, then interruption. It was raining: weather is background, not an event. I had never owned a pet: the earlier scene. And she was cooking while he was doing his homework: two backgrounds at once. Next topic: the future continuous and future perfect, the tenses of tomorrow's weather and tomorrow's finished homework.