Grammar Test Past Tenses SIMPLE CONTINUOUS PERFECT
Well hey there I’m Emma from mmmEnglish.
Today I’ve got a quiz for you, a narrative tenses quiz.
It’s gonna test your ability to use all of the past tenses in English,
that’s right all of them.
Now I’m not going to lie, this quiz will really push your limits
but practising all of these tenses all at once
is going to help you to better understand how they fit together
and how they get used together
and that’s going to help you to become a better English speaker,
especially when it comes to talking about past events
and experiences and telling stories.
So here on the mmmEnglish channel we’ve been talking a lot about
storytelling and about narrative tenses lately.
I’ve shared some really great grammar lessons to help you
understand and to practise some of the more complex parts
of the English language. This quiz, this challenge today
is going to test your understanding of past tenses, past perfect,
past continuous even past simple.
And I’ve added links down in the description to all of the grammar
lessons that I’ve made that are going to help you to study
and go deeper on some of the things that we’ll test
today in this lesson.
The cool thing about that is you’ll get to find out what you’re really
comfortable and confident with
but we’ll also work out what you need to work on a little more
or what you need to improve on.
So here’s how today’s quiz works.
I’m going to start off by telling you
the verb that I need you to think about
and then you’ll see a sentence appear on screen just like this.
So the verb is write.
And I want you to put it into the past continuous tense.
You’ll have a few seconds to write down your answer
before I read the correct one out loud.
She was writing an email.
So I know that was an easy one to get started
but there are three practice rounds, each one is going to focus on
a different tense. The first will be the past continuous.
The next, the past perfect simple and then
the past perfect continuous.
But the final round is longer and you’ll need to think hard about
how these tenses work together, including the past simple tense
so you’ll really get to put everything that we’ve been learning
over the last few weeks into practice.
As always if you have any questions, write them down
in the comments below.
If you have any example sentences you want me to check
or you want feedback on, drop them down there as well.
I’ll be down there giving comments and guidance
and explanations as we need it.
All right let’s get started!
Round one, past continuous.
Drive.
I was driving to work when it started to rain.
Wait.
They were waiting for the bus.
Do.
What were you doing when you heard the news?
Watch.
When the alarm went off, we were watching a movie.
Eat.
They were eating lunch when he arrived.
Okay round two.
We’re talking about the past perfect simple.
Drive.
The train wasn’t running but luckily I had driven to work.
Finish.
We had finished eating dinner by the time he finally arrived.
Not / Hear.
So this is a negative sentence.
I was shocked when you told me you hadn’t heard the news.
Go.
The alarm went off for a second time.
It had gone off earlier in the week.
Eat.
They had already eaten lunch when I arrived.
Round three. This is the past perfect continuous.
Drive.
I had been driving behind Jim before the accident happened.
Wait.
We had been waiting for a long time
and the tram was still nowhere to be seen.
Follow.
We had been following the news closely, listening for updates.
Go off.
The alarm had been going off all week before they finally fixed it.
Eat.
They had been eating only salad for weeks and it showed.
Right so before we start the final round,
I want to find out which of the tenses we’ve practised
so far has been the most challenging for you.
Let me know down in the comments which one was the trickiest.
I’ll be able to share a lesson or two that will help you out
and help you to study further.
Round four, narrative tenses all together!
So these sentences will be a little longer
and they’ll all be connected together into a story.
So you’ll need to work out which tense is the best one to use
with the information that you have.
Now it may be possible to use more than one in some of these
situations so don’t stress too much
but remember, if you need a little bit more time to think
hit pause. There’s no rush, you’re in control.
Pause, have a think, write it down before you keep going.
Leave.
When I left the house this morning it was raining
Pour.
It was pouring with rain and the streets were flooded with water.
Listen.
I was listening to my favourite podcast
Pay, to pay attention.
and I was paying close attention to my feet
Not / want.
as I didn’t want to slip in the rain.
Arrived.
When I arrived at the tram stop,
there must have been 50 people there!
Wait.
All of them were waiting for the tram.
Wait.
One woman said she’d been waiting for over an hour!
Notice.
Then I noticed the street was full of cars
Be.
The traffic was backed up as far as I could see.
Rain.
It had been raining all morning so the streets were very wet.
Cause.
All that rain had caused a car to slide through a red light
and into the oncoming traffic.
Call.
A man at the tram stop had already called the emergency services
Not / arrive.
but they hadn’t arrived at the scene yet.
Help.
A nurse who had witnessed the accident
was helping the injured people.
Warn.
The evening news from yesterday
had warned of storms and wild weather.
Not / stop.
but the warnings hadn’t stopped people
from driving in the storm.
Treat.
By the time the emergency services got to the scene,
the nurse had treated the injuries already.
Exchange.
And the drivers had exchanged insurance details.
So what did you think? Hopefully, you enjoyed the challenge.
The really cool thing is that you’ve been practising
your grammar, reminding yourself of these tenses
as we went through this video but you can also use this same quiz
to practise your speaking skills
because now you’ve got the answers, you can watch it again
but instead of thinking of the answers, say the sentence out
loud because then you’ll get to hear me say it and you’ll get to
compare how you’re pronouncing each of these words
and these expressions as we go.
Now there was probably a couple of answers that you’re a little
on the fence about.
If you’ve watched any of the narrative tenses lessons
that I’ve prepared then you’ll know that sometimes more than one
answer is possible so I’ve talked a little bit more about this
over on the mmmEnglish blog so if you want to go a little deeper
and try and understand a little bit more
then check out the link in the description or this one up here.
So a great way to really lock in everything that you’ve been
learning through this lesson and through the grammar lessons
on the channel is to start writing your own story.
Now I’d love to hear about something that happened to you
recently, something funny, something annoying,
something strange that you witnessed, whatever it is.
Tell me about it down in the comments. I’ll be reading all of your
wonderful stories with a cup of tea and giving you
any tips and advice as I see that I need to.
So thank you so much for watching,
looking forward to seeing you in the next lesson.
Bye for now.