Reading Simple Stories: Who, When and What Happened

A short story is harder than a sign, because you have to hold several things in your head at once: the people, the order of events, and the time. Here is how to keep track.

Who is who

English uses a name once, then switches to he / she / they / it. When you lose the thread, go back to the last name you saw.

Marta arrived late. She had missed the bus, so she walked. When she got there, Tom was already waiting.

She is Marta every time. The moment a new name appears — Tom — the pronouns may change too.

Watch for other ways of naming the same person: Marta may become her sister, the older woman, the teacher. English avoids repeating a name and expects you to follow.

The order of events

Stories are not always told in the order things happened. These words tell you the real order:

Word	Meaning
then, after that, later	the next thing
before	earlier than
already	it happened earlier than expected
suddenly	quickly and unexpectedly
finally, in the end	the last thing
meanwhile	at the same time
by the time	before that moment

Watch for before. She ate before she left means eating came first, even though left is the last word in the sentence.

Past simple carries the story

The events of a story are almost all in past simple: arrived, walked, waited, saw. When you meet had + verb (had missed), that is something that happened even earlier:

When she got there, Tom had already left.

Tom left first. She arrived second — and he was gone.

And was/were + -ing is the background — what was going on when the event happened:

She was reading when the phone rang.

Reading was already happening; the ring interrupted it.

Where and when it happens

Stories usually set the scene in the first line or two, and then never mention it again:

It was almost midnight, and the station was empty.

Everything that follows happens there, at that time. If you lose track later, the setting is at the top.

What people say

Direct speech is marked by quotation marks, and the he said can come before or after:

"I'll wait outside," she said.

He asked, "Are you sure?"

The reporting verb tells you the feeling: she whispered, he shouted, she muttered, he insisted. That verb often carries more information than the words in quotes.

Feelings tell you why

Stories explain actions with feeling words: worried, annoyed, relieved, surprised. If you understand the feeling, you usually understand why the person did the next thing.

What isn't said

Short stories leave things out and expect you to work them out:

Sam looked at the empty platform, then at the clock. He sat down on his suitcase.

Nobody says he missed the train. The empty platform, the clock and sitting down on the case say it for them. Asking why did they do that? is usually how you find the part the writer left unsaid.

A worked example

Sam checked his bag twice. His passport wasn't there. He ran back to the flat, but the door was locked and his keys were in the bag he had left at the café. Finally, he phoned his sister.

Order of events: he left the bag at the café (earliest — had left), checked his bag, ran back, found the door locked, phoned his sister. The feeling behind it all: panic.

One more to practise on

Anna had been saving for two years. When the letter finally came, she read it twice, then put it face down on the table. Her brother watched her for a moment. "Well?" he said. She was smiling.

Try three questions: what came first (the saving), what was in the letter (good news — she was smiling), and why did she put it face down (she was drawing out the moment). Only the first is stated directly.

Ask the story three questions, in this order. Who is in it? What order did things happen in? How did they feel? Almost every comprehension question you will be asked is one of those three, and answering them as you read is far easier than reconstructing them afterwards.

Test yourself

The quiz below asks who did what, and when.