Story Verbs & Time Words
Narrative verbs and time expressions for telling a story.
When you tell a story in English, you need special words. Story verbs help you say what people do — they shout, whisper, laugh, or run away. Time words help you say when things happen — once upon a time, then, suddenly, or in the end. These words make your story easy to follow and fun to read.
Key terms
| Word | Group |
|---|---|
| shout | Story Verb |
| whisper | Story Verb |
| once upon a time | Time Word |
| suddenly | Time Word |
| discover | Story Verb |
| in the end | Time Word |
Story verbs tell what happens. Time words tell when it happens.
- 1Read the story: Once upon a time, a girl found an old box. She opened it and a small light appeared. Suddenly, the light disappeared! She looked everywhere but she could not find it. In the end, she laughed — the light was on her phone!
Do not confuse 'escape' and 'run away'. You escape FROM a place (escape from a room). You run away FROM something scary (run away from a dog).
'Once upon a time' and 'A long time ago' both start stories about the past. But 'once upon a time' is for fairy tales and 'a long time ago' is for real history.
Time words like 'then', 'after that', and 'later' help you put story events in order. Use them to tell what happened first, next, and last.
Rules
- 1Story verbs tell the action: what someone does (shout, run away, hide).
- 2Time words tell the order: when something happens (then, later, finally).
- 3'Once upon a time' starts a fairy tale; 'one day' or 'a long time ago' starts any story.
- 4Some verbs describe how people speak: 'shout' (loud) and 'whisper' (quiet).
- 5Some verbs describe movement: 'arrive' (come), 'escape' (get away), 'follow' (go after).
Practice
10 easy · 10 medium · 10 hard
10 random questions per test