Three Step English for Intermediate Learners - Learn #12 - Talking About Past Actions in Sequence - Grammar
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Let's look at the sentence pattern. This pattern is the structure that all of our examples will follow. Event, comma, event, comma, and then event. Each of these events is a past tense verb phrase. Let's see how a line from the dialogue follows this pattern. We came to New York, moved in with my wife's grandmother, and then started looking for a house to live in.

The first phrase is, "We came to New York." Then we have, "Moved in with my wife's grandmother." Because this is part of the same sentence, we don't need to re-establish the subject. It remains the same for all phrases without repeating the subject word or using pronouns.

Finally, we have "and then" to show the following phrase is the final one in the sentence and the last past tense verb phrase: "started looking for a house to live in." Now let's look at some speaking examples. I applied for a job at the research center. They called me and then I accepted the job. Can you see how the pattern applies here?

I applied for a job at the research center is the first event. They called me is the second, and then I accepted the job is the last one. In the second phrase, we use the pronoun they in they called me because the subject changed from I, the speaker, to they, the people at the research center. Next.

Let's try one more. Another one.

I started playing tennis when I was six, got a tennis scholarship, and then started teaching recently. Started playing tennis, got a scholarship, and then started teaching recently. One last example. I went running every day, tried out for track and field, and then made the track team. I went running, tried out, and then made the team.