How to tell a story ( Past Events) in English with example?
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| Md. Nasir Uddin |
A very useful skill in English is to be able to tell a story or an anecdote. Anecdotes are short stories about something that happened to you or someone you know. So in this lesson you will learn to convey past events in words.
Becoming a better storyteller will make you a more convincing speaker. People are attracted to good stories—it’s a fundamental part of being human. Learning how to tell better stories in English can help you become a more effective English speaker, and a better communicator generally.
Tow most important elements of a story
1.Goal 2.Tension
First step to tell a story is to link your ideas together. Once you sequence them it is easy for you to put it in words.
Beginning
If you are going to tell your story after someone else has already spoken to you, then you can start by saying:
1.That reminds me! 2.Something similar happened to me.
3. Firstly 4. First of all
- Words like Firstly, to start off with can help you to start telling your story or any past event.
Continuing
Words that help you to connect or continue your story are:
1. Then 2.After that 3.Next
Interruptions / New elements to the story
While you are telling your story and certain elements have to be added then you can use words like:
1. Suddenly 2. Unexpectedly
Ending To end the story words that can be used are:
1. Finally 2. In the end 3. Eventually 4. Lastly
Tenses
Varieties of tenses are used to tell stories such as:
1.Present Tense -- used for telling jokes, or to give a dramatic effect.
2) Past simple- used to tell a story in a chronological order
3) Past continuous -- used to describe activities in progress at the time of your story or give a background to it.
Use wide range of vocabulary to make your story interesting
Note: Vocabulary does not make a good story, structure and emotion make a good story.
Review: Telling a story
-Set the scene and give some background information.
-Establish a goal for the person or people in your story.
Add some tension, so that people are not sure what will happen in the end.
-Finish the story and add a retrospective comment.
Examples/Samples
When I started to learn English. I was 18 years old. Who teacher's taught me English. His name is Jack. He had incredible talent and spoke English like a native speaker. I wanted to be speaker like my previous teacher. At that time I didn't know much about English. When I used to listen his speech. 'I thought he had practiced a lot to learn. But I was wrong; you guys know most interesting things in English. Whatever you learn try to find out. Is it correct or not.? But i didn't do like this. Later I realized myself, I was wrong. Because that guy taught me English. He used to make mistakes also, then I decided to follow native speaker. How they speak English how they pronounce correctly, who later I improved little bit. I request to guys, you have seen any mistakes in my text. Please guys tell me.
Md. Nasir Uddin Gazi BA(honrs) Dept. of English Literature at CVC Email:nasiruddin661995@gmail.com
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