: Re: A question about Past Participle vs Simple Past in a novel The novel is in past tense and the character is recounting things that happened before the novel began. Should I be using the past

@Vandalay250

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English tenses are too complex to be summed up in simple rules. What you have written is correct. Many things in English are 'correct', but they are not necessarily the best thing.

I teach students to stick to one tense or another, until they can move between them for effect. As an example, 'had given', the past perfect tense, suggests that an action happened before another action. However, 'gave' is a past simple where an action started and finished in the past, suggesting that something happened regularly in the past.

You could rephrase part of what you said: 'When she read it, it was giving her goosebumps / it gave her goosebumps / it had given her goosebumps / it had been giving her goosebumps.' The effect of using each tense -- past progressive, past simple, past perfect, past perfect progressive -- is different. What is right depends on what you want the reader to think, feel and believe.

An added complication: past tense narratives can contain sections in what is sometimes called the present historic tense to create tension. For example: He stepped out onto the ledge. He takes one step at a time. He doesn't look down. He doesn't think. He just does it.

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