6.1 Past Tenses & Narrative Time Sequencing

6.1 Past Tenses & Narrative Time Sequencing

Quick Answer: A2 Flyers stories rest on three time systems. Past simple (from A1 Movers) names finished events. Past continuous (new at Flyers) paints background or an interrupted action: Harry was walking to the castle when he saw a swan. Present perfect (new at Flyers) links a past event to now: Have you ever been to the circus? He's just eaten his dinner. Reading and Writing Part 7 accepts past tenses or present-continuous picture description. Speaking Part 4 asks about yesterday and about Have you ever…?

Why Flyers adds two tenses on top of past simple

The Handbook for Teachers 2024 (p. 77) lists what is new at A2 Flyers. Candidates also need every structure from Pre A1 Starters and A1 Movers. Past simple is not Flyers-new. It arrived at Movers, and Flyers still tests it heavily because Parts 3, 4, 5 and 7 are story-shaped.

A child who can only say I go to the castle yesterday is still below the paper. A child who can say I went to the castle yesterday, it was raining, and I have never seen a real swan is using the three systems the papers actually sample.

Do not invent extra narrative tenses. Past perfect (Harry had gone) is not on the Flyers list. Future-in-the-past (was going to) is not listed as Flyers-new. Teach the three systems Cambridge names, with Flyers wordlist scenes: Harry, a castle, a swan, a pyramid, an astronaut, Emma, snow.

Past simple: the spine of a Flyers story

Movers examples the Handbook still expects: We went to the park yesterday. Her father cooked lunch on Friday. Did you go to the cinema? Yes, I did. We didn't see the pirate at the party.

On Flyers papers this is the default for a finished visit:

• Harry visited an old castle last Saturday.
• Emma took photos of a pyramid.
• The children did not hear the teacher's whistle.
• William fell over on the ice and hurt his knee.

Regular past adds -ed (played, visited, climbed, shouted). Irregular past must be learned as Flyers wordlist verbs: went, saw, took, ate, made, fell, hurt, rode, wrote, bought, found, put, got, came, told, thought, flew, swam. The Handbook's Reading and Writing Part 4 advice is explicit: make candidates familiar with past forms of regular and irregular verbs in the A2 Flyers vocabulary list. A Part 4 gap such as Summer usually ______ in June is often a three-option verb choice (starts / starting / started). The surrounding time phrase decides the tense.

Questions and negatives still use did: Did Sophia see the swan? She didn't see it because it flew away. Children who write Did she saw or She didn't saw lose Part 6 and Part 7 marks even when the story idea is right. Copy the past form that the sentence time requires, not the infinitive from a nearby line.

Past continuous: two official jobs, not a third

The Flyers list gives two uses and two official-style patterns:

1. Interrupted action: I was walking down the road when I saw her.
2. Background setting: It was a very cold day and snow was falling.

Use Flyers wordlist scenes, not adult office English:

• Harry was climbing the castle stairs when a bat flew out.
• It was a foggy morning and swans were swimming on the pond.
• Emma was taking a photo of the pyramid when a camel walked in front of her.
• The astronaut was looking at the planet when an alien opened the door.

The long action uses past continuous. The short interrupting event uses past simple. That pairing is the one Part 7 markers can follow without extra effort.

What past continuous is not at Flyers:

• It is not a replacement for past simple in every sentence. Yesterday we were going to the museum is weaker than Yesterday we went to the museum if the visit is a finished fact.
• It is not required in Speaking Part 3. The Handbook says the structures needed most frequently there are there is/are, present be and have (got), can/can't, must/mustn't, and present continuous of action verbs (come, go, buy, put on, carry, open, laugh). A few words per picture is enough; narrative skill is not required. A child may say Harry is looking at the swan even if the five pictures look like a story.
• It is not past perfect. Harry was walking is Flyers; Harry had walked is not on the list.

Present perfect: ever, just, and yet

Official Flyers examples:

• Have you ever been to the circus?
• He's just eaten his dinner.
• Adverb example on the same Handbook page: I haven't bought my brother's birthday present yet.

Form: have/has + past participle. Irregular participles children actually meet: been, seen, eaten, taken, written, given, made, gone, come, bought, found, fallen, ridden, flown.

Three Flyers-safe meanings:

1. Life experience with ever/never: Have you ever ridden a camel? William has never seen a pyramid. Has Holly ever been to a castle?
2. Very recent with just: Holly has just fallen over in the snow. The waiter has just brought the pizza.
3. Not up to now with yet (usually in negatives and questions): Katy hasn't finished her homework yet. Have you bought the tickets yet?

Yet is listed under Flyers-new adverbs, not as a separate tense. It almost always sits with present perfect in classroom English at this level. Do not bolt it onto past simple (I didn't buy it yet) in exam writing; the Handbook example is present perfect + yet.

Speaking Part 4 is the spoken home of this tense. The Handbook tells teachers that questions will normally be present, but candidates should also be prepared to use the past, present perfect, and going to, and to answer what they did yesterday or are going to do at the weekend. A one- or two-sentence answer is enough: Yes, I have. I went last year with my aunt. Examiners are not asking for a lecture.

Do not teach present perfect continuous (I have been living) as a Flyers item. It is not on the list. Do not teach already as a Flyers-new official adverb unless you treat it as extra classroom language; the Handbook's Flyers adverb example is yet.

Time sequencing that Cambridge actually lists

Flyers-new: before/after clauses, not with future reference. Official example: I finished my homework before I played football. Safe copies:

• Harry took off his rucksack after he climbed the hill.
• Emma wrote in her diary before she went to sleep.
• The children had a snack after they visited the museum.

Wrong at this syllabus: I will phone you after I will arrive and I am going to play after I will finish. The list forbids future reference in these clauses. If the story is already in the past, keep both verbs in a past form. Before and after can also be prepositions of time from earlier lists (after school), but the clause (before I played football) is the Flyers-new item.

Movers (still needed): when clauses, not with future meaning: When he got home, he had his dinner. Because is the Movers conjunction: I went home because I was tired. Flyers then adds so (taught in section 6.3). Use when for the same-time or just-after link, before/after for order, and past continuous + when + past simple for an interruption.

A Part 7-friendly three-picture chain:

1. Picture 1: Harry was standing by the castle gate. It was snowing.
2. Picture 2: He was taking a photo when a swan walked up to him.
3. Picture 3: After the swan flew away, Harry wrote a postcard to his grandma.

Part 7 is one question worth 5 marks on a paper of 44 questions / 48 marks. Children write more than 20 words, one or two sentences per picture, and a link from picture 1 to pictures 2 and 3. Quality over quantity; going on to a second page creates more chances to break tense. Past tenses or present continuous picture description are both acceptable. The Handbook's own pair is An astronaut arrived on a strange planet. He talked to an alien versus An astronaut is arriving on a strange planet. He is talking to an alien. Pick one time system and keep it. Mixing Harry walked with Harry is seeing in the same three sentences is what makes a reader work too hard.

Past continuous plus past simple is the most natural way to show that the three pictures are one event, not three separate posters. Present continuous is the safer spoken choice in Speaking Part 3, where the examiner names the story, describes picture 1 of five, and the child describes the other four.

Where each tense scores on the papers

Reading and Writing Part 3 (6 marks): a gapped narrative. The box mixes nouns, adjectives, and verbs in present and past tense. Copy the form in the box. If the story starts Last weekend, Harry…, a present-tense box word is usually wrong. Read the whole story before the first gap.

Part 4 (10 marks): factual 3-option cloze with a grammatical focus. Past forms of listed verbs are a stated teaching target. The surrounding time words (usually, last winter, in June, yesterday) choose among starts / started / starting.

Part 5 (7 marks): complete sentences with 1–4 words. The picture gives context, not answers. Children often need to turn went to visit an old castle into visited a castle without changing the time. Copy spelling from the story.

Part 6 (5 marks): open cloze diary, letter or email; one word; no box. Gaps such as we've been ___ see the castle test a missing to, have, because or than. Read the whole text. Present perfect appears in holiday diaries (I have always wanted to ride a camel).

Part 7 (1 question, 5 marks): three pictures, more than 20 words, connected events, all three pictures, reader effort.

Speaking Part 3: describe four remaining pictures of a five-picture story. Present continuous is enough. Present perfect or going to may appear if a picture shows a result or a next step (They are going to take a photo).

Speaking Part 4: personal questions on school, holidays, birthdays, family and hobbies. Be ready for What did you do yesterday? and Have you ever been to a museum?

Classroom drill that stays inside the lists

Give a Flyers picture (castle, pond, swan, snow) and force a three-line answer:

1. Background: It was snowing and the castle was cold.
2. Interruption: Harry was walking across the bridge when he saw a swan.
3. Result with present perfect if the examiner asks now: He has never seen a swan so near.

That is the whole of Flyers narrative time: Movers past simple, Flyers past continuous, Flyers present perfect, plus before/after without future reference. Anything beyond that (past perfect, first-conditional if it rains tomorrow we will… used as a story engine) is extra classroom language, not a Handbook p. 77 item.