Background and event: two jobs, two tenses
A story about the past usually has a longer action already going on and a short event in the middle of it. The longer action is the background and uses the past continuous: “I was waiting for the bus.” The short event uses the past simple: “The bus left.”
The past continuous is was or were plus the -ing form: “was” with I, he, she and it; “were” with you, we and they.
- Background: “We were playing football.”
- Event: “It started to rain.”
- Together: “We were playing football when it started to rain.”
When or while?
“When” goes with the short event: “I was checking the timetable when the bus left.” “While” goes with the longer background action: “The bus left while I was looking away.” Either part can come first. If the sentence starts with “when” or “while”, add a comma: “While I was looking away, the bus left.”
One detail: “when” with two past simple verbs shows order, not overlap. “When the bus left, I called an adult.” means the call came after the bus left. Ask your child: “Which one started first?”
Asking about what happened
“What were you doing when…?” asks about the background, so the answer uses was or were + -ing. “What did you do next?” asks for the next step in the past simple. After “did”, use the base form: “Did you miss the event?”, not “Did you missed…?” Hear all three below.
Nia What were you doing when the bus left?
Leo I was checking the timetable.
Nia What did you do next?
Leo I called an adult and cycled on the safe path.
Nia Did you miss the event?
Leo No. I arrived before it started.
Irregular past forms for stories
Practise irregular past forms inside full sentences, not as a list. With “did”, the base form comes back: “I took the bus.” but “I didn’t take the bus.”
- go → went: “We went to the sports centre.”
- take → took: “I took the safe path.”
- see → saw: “I saw the bus at the corner.”
- make → made: “We made a new plan.”
From spoken news to a short written story
Once your child can tell the event aloud, writing it is a small step: four parts, one or two sentences each. Here is a model your child can change: “Last Saturday, my sister and I were waiting at the bus stop. While we were talking, the bus went past without stopping. We called Dad, and he drove us to the stadium. In the end, we arrived just before the match started.”
- Scene: who, where, what was happening
- Event: what happened, with when or while
- Next steps: then, after that
- Ending: in the end, finally
Common mistakes and quick fixes
These are normal at A2. Repeat the sentence back correctly and let your child carry on.
- “I was check the timetable.”: it needs was or were and -ing: “I was checking the timetable.”
- “We was waiting.”: with we, you and they it is “were”.
- “While the bus left, I was reading.”: use “when” for a short event: “When the bus left, I was reading.”
- “I was calling an adult and I was cycling there.”: steps in order use the past simple: “I called an adult and cycled there.”
- “He goed home.”: irregular verbs have their own past form: “He went home.”
A home game: the interrupted story
Play for 15 minutes at dinner. Round 1: name a time, such as “at seven o’clock yesterday evening”, and everyone says what they were doing. Round 2: one person starts a background sentence, “I was reading in bed…”, and the next interrupts with an event: “…when the lights went out.” Round 3: say what happened next. Once a week, your child writes one story and underlines background verbs in one colour and events in another.
What comes next
Next, add two actions at the same time: “While I was cooking, my brother was laying the table.” Then add results with so: “The bus left, so I called an adult.”