Meaning & use
narrative story
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Meanings
nouncountable
A story that is told or written in a connected sequence of events, with a beginning, middle, and end.
Grammar: Countable: 'a narrative story', 'two narrative stories'.
Patterns
- tell a narrative story
- write a narrative story
- a narrative story about someone
The teacher asked us to write a narrative story about a journey.
She told a narrative story that kept everyone listening until the end.
Each narrative story in the book follows a different family.
nouncountabletechnical
A piece of writing or speech that uses storytelling techniques rather than lists of facts or arguments.
Grammar: Often used when contrasting with factual or persuasive writing.
Patterns
- use a narrative story
- present something as a narrative story
In the report, the writer presents the data as a narrative story.
Journalists sometimes frame the news as a narrative story with heroes and villains.
Word forms
| plural | narrative stories |
|---|
Common combinations
- write a narrative story
- For homework we had to write a narrative story of about 500 words.
- tell a narrative story
- He can tell a narrative story that holds a whole room quiet.
- a personal narrative story
- Her college essay was a personal narrative story about moving to a new country.
- a narrative story about
- The film is a narrative story about three brothers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tale
- More literary and often shorter or more traditional; 'a fairy tale' fits better than 'a narrative story' for old folk stories.
- account
- Focuses on a report of what happened and may lack the crafted structure of a story.
- narrative
- Almost the same, but it can also mean the way a story is told, so it is broader and more formal.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: narrative story or narrative? narrative story or narrator?
narrative story vs narrative
'Narrative' alone often means the structure or point of view of a story, while 'narrative story' stresses that it is an actual story being told.
narrative story vs narrator
A narrator is the person telling the story, not the story itself.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'narrative story' most naturally?
Choose one answer.
'Narrative story' is a noun phrase, so it fits as the object of 'wrote'. The other options wrongly use it as a verb.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “narrative story”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.