Meaning & use
folktale
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Meaning
nouncountable
A story from a community's oral tradition, handed down over many generations and usually retold with small changes.
Grammar: Has a plural: a collection of folktales.
Patterns
- a folktale about something
- a folktale from somewhere
My grandmother told us a folktale about a clever fox.
The museum has a collection of folktales from the Balkans.
Many folktales end with a lesson about greed or kindness.
Word forms
| plural | folktales |
|---|
Common combinations
- traditional folktale
- It is a traditional folktale told at harvest time.
- retell a folktale
- The author decided to retell a folktale for modern children.
- collect folktales
- The scholar spent years traveling to collect folktales.
- folktale character
- The trickster is a favorite folktale character.
- based on a folktale
- The film is based on an old Russian folktale.
Synonyms and how they differ
- folk tale
- This is simply the two-word spelling, equally correct, and often preferred in British writing.
- fairy tale
- A fairy tale has magical beings and is aimed at children, while a folktale can be realistic or humorous too.
- legend
- A legend is tied to a named hero or place and is believed to have a historical core, unlike a folktale.
- fable
- A fable is a short story, usually with talking animals, that ends with an explicit moral.
Word family
Commonly confused: folktale or myth?
folktale vs myth
A myth usually explains gods, creation or natural events, while a folktale mostly entertains with ordinary people and animals.
Practice
What most clearly separates a folktale from a news report?
Choose one answer.
A folktale spreads through oral retelling over generations; the other options describe news writing or authored fiction.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “folktale”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.