When you tell a story about the past, you use four tenses together. Each one has a job: moving the story forward, painting the background, or jumping back to something that happened earlier. Pick the right one and your listener always knows what happened when.
The pattern
I was walking to my car when it started to rain.
She was upset because she had been waiting for two hours.
01Four tenses, four jobs
Think of a story as a movie. The past simple is the action, the past continuous is the scenery, and the two perfect tenses are flashbacks to earlier moments.
| Tense | Form | Job in a story |
|---|---|---|
| Past simple | I drove | main events, in order |
| Past continuous | I was driving | background, actions in progress |
| Past perfect | I had driven | a finished earlier event |
| Past perfect continuous | I had been driving | an earlier activity that lasted up to that moment |
02Setting the scene and moving forward
Use the past continuous for what was going on around the story: the weather, what people were doing. Use the past simple for the events that move the story forward. A short event that interrupts a longer one takes the past simple, usually after when.
- It was snowing, and everyone was trying to get home early.
- We were having dinner when the lights went out.
- I grabbed a flashlight, found the fuse box and flipped the switch.
03Flashbacks: had done vs. had been doing
Use the past perfect for an earlier event that was complete. Use the past perfect continuous to show how long an earlier activity lasted, or to explain a result you could see. State verbs like know, own, believe and want don't usually take -ing forms, so use had known, not had been knowing.
- I had finished the report, so I left early.
- Her eyes were red. She had been crying.
- By the time the pizza arrived, we had been waiting for an hour.
- I had known Sara for years before we worked together.
04How much past perfect do you need?
In American English, speakers often use the past perfect once to open a flashback and then switch back to the past simple. With before and after, the past simple is usually fine because the order is already clear.
- After the game ended, we went for tacos.
- I had moved to Dallas that spring. I didn't know anyone, and I missed home.
05Common mistakes
I was knowing her since high school.
I had known her since high school.
Know is a state verb, and since a past point needs had known.
When the power went out, we watched a movie, so we missed the ending.
When the power went out, we were watching a movie, so we missed the ending.
The movie was in progress when the power went out.
He was tired because he had been work all night.
He was tired because he had been working all night.
The past perfect continuous is had been + -ing.