Tenses

Tara was going to Ceylan when it changed its name to Sri Lanka.

Sometimes, Narrative Tense uses a mixture of tenses. For example, when talking about two events that began and ended in the past, you may have to use both Simple Past and Continuous (Progressive) tense. Especially if you were interrupted while doing something.

As you may recall, Simple Past Tense used the Infinitive Verb + ed. For instance, you may hear a Native English speaker say: 

“Yesterday, I walked to work.”

This is a Simple Past Tense. The speaker began and ended their walk yesterday.

Homer slowly typed a poem

Narrative Tense speaks of an event that began and ended in the past. Narrative Tense is often found in stories, books, textbooks, and descriptions of past events.

Like all tenses, Narrative Tense is created by conjugating The Verb, causing it to either match the sentence’s Subject or relationship to when an event occurred. For example, 

“I write to you,”

uses the simple present form of the Verb “write,” indicating that the speaker wrote and will continue to write to the listener. This cycle of writing and sending letters could go on forever. However, to put the above example in the Narrative Tense, it would be written as: 

“I wrote to you,”

Meaning that the speaker wrote the listener in the past, but might not write again. Here’s another example:

Homer felt sorrow because of a recent breakup. But, Homer didn’t cry. Instead, he slowly typed a poem. He knew it wasn’t going to be the greatest poem ever, but putting his feeling on paper helped him heal.