How to Tell a Story in English: 3 Past Tenses for Storytelling

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1. 0:00Oh my gosh. So today was a super terrible morning.
2. 0:03I woke up almost an hour late. I forgot to charge my phone.
3. 0:08My alarm didn't go off. I drove to work as fast as I could, hurried through the lobby. A coworker came around the corner.
4. 0:15She spilled coffee all over my shirt. I ran to the restroom, cleaned myself up, and somehow I still made it to my meeting on
5. 0:25time. Okay. Honestly, that never happened. I've made that story up, but I made it up for a very good reason.
6. 0:33My guess is you understood every sentence I just said.
7. 0:37You know exactly what happened.
8. 0:39And maybe you've wanted to tell a similar kind of story in English. For example, maybe you've needed to explain why you arrived late to work,
9. 0:49or maybe you wanted to tell someone about a stressful morning trying to get the kids out the door to school, and one small problem led to another and another.
10. 0:59Or maybe something funny or completely unexpected happened while you were traveling, shopping, or just going through your day. In each case, you know exactly what happened.
11. 1:11You remember all the details and you want to share them with someone else.
12. 1:15But perhaps while you're speaking in the moment, it's difficult to put all those details together clearly and show exactly what happened and when.
13. 1:27So I want you to listen to a specific part of my story again.
14. 1:32And we're going to pay attention specifically to how I said it the first time and a much better, much clearer way to tell that same story.
15. 1:43So at the beginning, I said, "I hurried through the lobby.
16. 1:47A coworker came around the corner.
17. 1:50She spilled coffee all over my shirt." Now, let's change that just a little bit.
18. 1:56I was hurrying through the lobby when a coworker came around the corner and spilled coffee all over my shirt.
19. 2:04The facts in these two stories are exactly the same, but the second version clearly shows that the
20. 2:12spill of coffee happened while I was hurrying through the lobby.
21. 2:17It makes the timeline easier to understand. Let me give you another example.
22. 2:22And this time we're gonna go back to the beginning of the story. Again, I said, "I forgot to charge my phone.
23. 2:30My alarm didn't go off." A better way to say that is I had forgotten to charge my phone the night before,
24. 2:38so my alarm didn't go off. With this structure, you now know when I forgot to charge it.
25. 2:46And you understand why my alarm didn't go off.
26. 2:50It's because the night before, I forgot to charge my phone. And as a result, the whole morning started off badly.
27. 2:58When we're telling stories or sharing memories, it's important for us to know what happened and when.
28. 3:06This is exactly why we use more than one past tense to tell those stories.
29. 3:12It isn't about making our grammar sound more advanced.
30. 3:17Instead, it's helping the listener understand how all the events fit together. In a recent lesson,
31. 3:25I shared how to talk about your past habits and routines with used to, would in the past simple. This lesson is different. Here,
32. 3:35we're telling one story about one particular day or a moment in that day.
33. 3:40So by the end of this lesson, you'll know exactly how to use the past simple, the past continuous, and the past perfect to tell stories showing what happened
34. 3:51and when in the clearest way possible. Now, my guess is you already know how to use the past simple in English.
35. 3:59But when it comes to telling stories, there's a very useful question to ask.
36. 4:04And that question is, what is the job of the past simple in a story?
37. 4:10To understand what the job is, let's go back to that story I told at the beginning.
38. 4:17I woke up almost an hour late.
39. 4:20I drove to work as fast as I could.
40. 4:23A coworker spilled coffee all over my shirt. I ran to the restroom.
41. 4:28I made it to the meeting. Each sentence answers the same question.
42. 4:34What happened next? I woke up late. And what happened next?
43. 4:39I drove to work. I drove to work. And what happened next?
44. 4:43A coworker spilled coffee on me.
45. 4:46Each event is presented as something that is complete or finished, and then the story moves to the next event.
46. 4:53The past simple helps your listener follow these events from the beginning of the story to the end.
47. 5:01But not every detail answers what happens next.
48. 5:06Some details answer completely different questions. For example, why didn't my alarm go off?
49. 5:12And what was I doing at the moment when the coffee spilled?
50. 5:17To answer those questions clearly, we need the past perfect and the past continuous.
51. 5:23So let's start with answering that second question.
52. 5:27What was I doing at the moment a coffee was spilled?
53. 5:31In the first version of the story, I said, I hurried through the lobby.
54. 5:37A coworker came around the corner. She spilled coffee all over my shirt.
55. 5:42All three actions are in the past simple.
56. 5:45So they sound like totally separate events.
57. 5:49But now let's change that a little bit to, I was hurrying through the lobby when a coworker came around.
58. 5:57The corner and spilled coffee on my shirt.
59. 6:00Now the relationship between these actions is clear.
60. 6:04The coffee was spilled while I was hurrying through the lobby.
61. 6:09That action was in progress at the moment the coffee was spilled. And to illustrate that, to make it abundantly clear,
62. 6:18we use the past continuous. I was hurrying through the lobby.
63. 6:23And then when we want to highlight that an event happened during that action, we use the past simple.
64. 6:30I was hurrying through the lobby when a coworker came around the corner and spilled coffee.
65. 6:37This combination is really common in storytelling.
66. 6:42The use of the past continuous and then when and the past simple. For example, I was driving home when my sister called.
67. 6:51We were having dinner when the lights went out.
68. 6:55She was talking to a neighbor when she heard the crash.
69. 7:00The past continuous shows what was happening at that moment or during that period of time.
70. 7:06And the past simple tells us what happened during.
71. 7:10In this particular story that I've been sharing, this sentence helps you or anyone listening to understand exactly when the coffee was spilled. Again,
72. 7:21I was hurrying through the lobby when a coworker came around the corner and spilled coffee. Now, of course, telling stories like this is not something that we only do in grammar lessons
73. 7:33or when we're writing and we have a lot of time to think.
74. 7:37We tell these stories in the moment when someone asks about our day or when we explain what went wrong or when we wanna share that something funny or surprising happened.
75. 7:47Getting real speaking practice and support makes it easier for you to tell stories and find the words or the grammar structures you need in your daily English life.
76. 7:59That is exactly the kind of practice women get inside the confident women community. It's the kind of practice that helped my student Natalia say, "Now I speak without fear.
77. 8:10I can finally enjoy the conversation." If you want to start enjoying your English conversations without fear, without embarrassment,
78. 8:19I'll share a link in the episode notes on where you can get more details about the confident women community.
79. 8:25But now let's return to our story and answer the other key question.
80. 8:31Why didn't my alarm go off? Once again, let's revisit what I shared at the beginning.
81. 8:37I forgot to charge my phone. My alarm didn't go off.
82. 8:42This highlights that both events happened in the past, but it's not really clear when I forgot to charge my phone.
83. 8:50And it's not clear that these two things are related.
84. 8:54So let's make a small change.
85. 8:57I woke up almost an hour late this morning.
86. 9:00I had forgotten to charge my phone last night, so my alarm didn't go off.
87. 9:06Using had forgotten the past perfect form takes us back to what happened before.
88. 9:13It shows that forgetting to charge my phone happened before all of the events this morning.
89. 9:21And that is the job of the past perfect in a story.
90. 9:25It helps your listener understand that one past event happened before another one.
91. 9:32Here are a few more ways to show just how useful this is in stories with this particular structure of the past simple, with because, and then the past perfect.
92. 9:43My alarm didn't go off because I had forgotten to charge my phone.
93. 9:48She couldn't get into the house because she had left her keys inside.
94. 9:53He was exhausted because he hadn't slept well the night before. In each example, the past simple tells us what happened later.
95. 10:03The past perfect explains what had happened earlier or previously.
96. 10:09And then once that earlier event is clear, you can return to the past simple and continue the story.
97. 10:15So with this clear understanding of how the past simple, past continuous, and past perfect work together, let's put our original story back together with a clearer timeline.
98. 10:28So I might have said, "Oh my gosh, this morning was terrible.
99. 10:32I woke up an hour late. I had forgotten to charge my phone the night before.
100. 10:38So my alarm didn't go off. I drove to work as fast as I could.
101. 10:42And then I was hurrying through the lobby when a coworker came around the corner and spilled coffee all over me. I ran to the restroom, cleaned myself up, and made it to the meeting.
102. 10:54Now it is much clearer to understand both what happened and when each event happened. The past simple gives us the main events.
103. 11:05I woke up late. I drove to work. A coworker spilled coffee.
104. 11:09I ran to the restroom. I made it to the meeting.
105. 11:12The past continuous shows what I was doing when the coffee was spilled. At that moment, I was hurrying through the lobby.
106. 11:22And the past perfect takes us back to what started all of this in the first place, the night before I had forgotten to charge my phone.
107. 11:31Do you notice that in most of the story, it's still in the past simple?
108. 11:37You only need the past continuous or past perfect when your listeners need that little bit of extra information about when something happened.
109. 11:47So now it's your turn to practice.
110. 11:49I want you to think about one small event from your life. It could be.
111. 11:53Something funny or surprising or unexpected.
112. 11:56And I want you to start by identifying all the main events, what happened first, what happened next, and then tell those events using the past simple to get started.
113. 12:08After you do that, ask yourself, was something already happening when one of those events occurred?
114. 12:16If yes, use the past continuous to add that detail. And then, is there something that happened earlier or before that your listener needs to
115. 12:26know? Again, if yes, then use the past perfect to explain it.
116. 12:31I would love for you to try to use four, five or six sentences. And remember, you don't need to force all three tenses into your story.
117. 12:42Only use the continuous and the perfect forms when your listener needs to understand what happened and when did it happen. If you want,
118. 12:51you can share your story with me in the comments below. As always, if you found this lesson helpful to you, don't forget to subscribe or follow wherever you're watching or listening from
119. 13:02today. Thank you so much for joining me, and I look forward to next time. Thank