Narrative Tenses: Mixed Practice

Mature English storytelling uses four past tenses simultaneously: the Past Simple for main events (She arrived late), the Past Continuous for background action (It was raining), the Past Perfect for earlier events (The meeting had started), and the Past Perfect Continuous for duration before a past moment (He had been waiting an hour). The four work together — each one does a different job in the same paragraph — and the B1–B2 challenge is to choose the right tense for each sentence based on what role it plays in the story.

This worksheet integrates all four narrative tenses in a single extended workplace narrative (“The Interview”), with analytical follow-up to reinforce why each tense is used.

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Worksheet preview

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What’s inside:

• Grammar Box mapping each tense to its narrative function (main events, background, earlier action, duration)
• Gap-fill in an extended interview story: choose the appropriate narrative tense for each gap
• Error correction (7 items): fix wrong tense choices, double past forms, and state-verb continuous
• Analysis task: identify the tense of seven highlighted verbs and explain why each was used
• Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes on B2 narrative writing and how to spot tense mismatches

Common mistakes addressed: Past Simple where Past Perfect is needed (By the time he arrived, we waited), continuous with state verbs in narrative (She had been knowing him), wrong word order with adverbs (had been already), and since two years (for two years).

For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B1–B2, in intermediate and upper-intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. The integration of four narrative tenses is exactly what Cambridge B2 First (FCE) Writing rewards in story and report tasks. Part of the Perfect Tenses collection — the natural sibling is Past Perfect Continuous, which isolates the duration-before-past-moment form practised here.