We use narrative tenses together in order to clear the order of events in a story

• Past Simple: used to talk about completed actions in the past (short, long or repeated actions), or to describe past events in chronological order
  • We went to Paraguay last year
  • We order the foor, ate  and paid
    

• Past continuous: used to talk about actions in progress at a particular time in the past, or to set the scene in a narrative
  • We were talking about her when she walked in
  • The sun was shining and the children were playing in the garden. Suddenly…
    

• Past Perfect Simple: used to talk about completed actions that had happened before another action in the past
  • I had already seen the DVD she took

• Past Perfect Continuous: used to talk about actions o situations which continued up to the moment in the past we are talking about; often used to show the reasons of a situation
  • Before he gave up, he had been smoking for years
  • He was angry because he’d been waiting for ages