Narrations & Descriptions

When we talk about narrations in terms of grammar and language, there are two very important vocabulary words: tense and aspect. These two concepts give us different, but essential, information about the story we are listening to.

Tense

tells us WHEN in time a verb occurred. Think of this as a timeline.

Aspect

adds information by telling us HOW that verb occurred in that time. Was it continuous? Or was the action in one particular moment?

Present Progresive

The second aspect we will discuss is present progressive. We use simple to talk about an action that started in the past, is happening now, and may continue into the future.

For example:

I am studying English. (ongoing action)

Are you listening to me? (ongoing action)

My team is losing the game. (ongoing action)

Because the action is happening right now, the present progressive stands alone rather than being interrupted like the past progressive. It may be surrounded by other tenses and aspects, but the progressive sentence can be alone as in the sentences above. In past progressive, you often have a secondary action connected to the progressive sentence in another clause. For example, it would be much more likely to hear someone say "My team was losing the game when I turned off the tv." instead of just saying "My team was losing the game." 

Structure of Present Progressive

Present Progressive has two parts: the auxiliary be and a present participle. A present participle ends with -ing. Here are some examples.

They are laughing at the joke.

I am wondering if our plane will arrive on time.

The speaker isn't (is not) presenting) now.

Are you listening to music?

You can read more about present participles here.

Exercise 1: Listen 

Watch this video. Notice how the speakers use past and present combined to tell a story. Although all of the events happened in the past, the simple present and progressive are also used to make the story more dramatic. Present is also used in the standard way.  

Examples of present used for narrations about the past	Examples of present used to talk about the present

Answer Key

Here are the present tense verbs from the video used as either part of a past or present narration.

Examples of present used for narrations about the past	Examples of present used to talk about the present
says are sitting hear is grab walk am sitting, knowing are start don't know crawl am crying knocks has want sees	get am know am crying are is worth watch don't know come is coming bring is beating take do

Speaking Practice

• How do you express strong emotions (positive or negative)? Describe and narrate an example experience of when you experienced a strong emotion.
• Narrate and describe a memory you have of a time someone surprised you. Tell the story using present even though it happened in the past.