Diary - I've just bought my breakfast and gone back home.

[Maybo]

This is an entry from my diary. Please check it and correct any mistakes.

I've just bought my breakfast and gone back home. On the way home, I got bit by a bug. It hurt a lot. The bit skin puffed up a little bit. I was worried that the bug was poisonous. Fortunately, the skin was back to normal after an hour. I don't want to die because of a bug.

 

[Tarheel]

I'm guessing that you went out for breakfast, but you didn't eat it there. Instead, you brought it home with you. Perhaps:

I went out for breakfast, and I just now brought it home.

I'm glad you didn't die.


(ESL learners tend to use perfect tenses quite a bit for some reason.)

 

[Maybo]

Is it better to use perfect tenses when I emphases sequence, otherwise, I can use the simple past to talked about the past?

 

[emsr2d2]

If you say "I went out for breakfast", it means you ate it outside your home. I prefer your original but I'd reword it to "I just went out to buy my breakfast and bring it home to eat".

You need "On the way home, I was/got bitten by a bug".

 

[Tarheel]

Is it better to use perfect tenses when I emphasize sequence? Otherwise, can I use the simple past to talk about the past?

Well, when you tell a story you usually start at the beginning, but that isn't always the case.

Coincidentally, somebody recently told me I'm a good storyteller. With that particular story I didn't start at the beginning. In fact, I started near the end. Also, I used phrases like "It all started when ...." (Did I think about the tenses I was using? Probably not.)

 

[tedmc]

I was on my way home after buying breakfast when I got bitten by a bug/insect.

bit skin - the area of the skin around the bite/sting

the swelling subsided

 

[Maybo]

Well, when you tell a story you usually start at the beginning, but that isn't always the case.

Coincidentally, somebody recently told me I'm a good storyteller. With that particular story I didn't start at the beginning. In fact, I started near the end. Also, I used phrases like "It all started when ...." (Did I think about the tenses I was using? Probably not.)

I mean something like "She had left by the time I arrived", which emphasizes sequence.

 

[Tarheel]

I mean something like "She had left by the time I arrived", which emphasizes sequence.

I'm fine with that one. @Maybo, just between you and me I think some teachers focus on the fine points of grammar too much. I read some of that stuff sometimes, and I say to myself, "I would never say that." I don't know where they get some of that stuff.

 

[5jj]

just between you and me I think some teachers focus on the fine points of grammar too much.

That's a strange thing to say in a forum in which members frequently seek answers to questions about grammar.

I read some of that stuff sometimes, and I say to myself, "I would never say that."

We generally suggest only forms that are reasonably common.

I don't know where they get some of that stuff.

I get it from 70+ years of speaking English, 60+ years of studying it in one way or another, and 50+ years of teaching and writing about it. Several of the other senior members have similar experience.