B2-73 · Narrate and analyse a story
Analysing literature
Recognise the literary Präteritum of strong and mixed verbs, describe the narrative perspective and analyse a motif in the present tense.
About 5 minutes to read · 12 quiz questions
01
Narrate in the Präteritum
Novels and short stories are usually told in the Präteritum, even though everyday speech prefers the Perfekt. Weak verbs add -te (regnete, wartete); strong verbs change their vowel and add no ending in the er/sie form (ging, sah, blieb). The short story excerpt below is fictional.
| meaning | infinitive | Präteritum |
|---|---|---|
| to leave | verlassen | verließ |
| to see, to look | sehen | sah |
| to go, to walk | gehen | ging |
| to stay | bleiben | blieb |
Es regnete seit Stunden, als Lena den Bahnhof verließ.
It had been raining for hours when Lena left the station.
Sie blieb kurz stehen und sah zum Fluss hinüber.
She stopped briefly and looked over towards the river.
Niemand wartete auf sie.
Nobody was waiting for her.
Langsam ging sie die leere Straße hinauf.
Slowly she walked up the empty street.
Learn strong verbs with their Präteritum form: verlassen, verließ; sehen, sah; gehen, ging; bleiben, blieb. In a narrative, keep the tense consistent: do not switch to the present in the middle of a scene.
02
Who tells the story?
The narrative perspective shows who tells the story. A first-person narrator speaks as ich and also uses the Präteritum: Ich wusste nicht, wohin ich gehen sollte. An omniscient narrator knows more than the characters. Your own analysis, however, is written in the present tense.
Die Geschichte wird von einer Ich-Erzählerin erzählt.
The story is told by a first-person narrator.
Ich wusste nicht, wohin ich gehen sollte.
I did not know where I should go.
Der Erzähler weiß mehr als die Figuren und kommentiert ihr Handeln.
The narrator knows more than the characters and comments on their actions.
In der Analyse schreibt man im Präsens, obwohl der Text im Präteritum erzählt wird.
In the analysis you write in the present tense, although the text is narrated in the Präteritum.
Der Ich-Erzähler (die Ich-Erzählerin) is the first-person narrator, der allwissende Erzähler the omniscient narrator, die Figur a character and die Hauptfigur the main character. Mixed verbs change the vowel and add -te: wissen, wusste; denken, dachte; kennen, kannte.
03
Analyse a motif
A motif is an image or idea that comes back in a text. In an analysis, name the motif in the present tense and support it with quotations from the story, which stay in the Präteritum. Strong verbs such as fallen (fiel) and scheinen (schien) are frequent in literary descriptions.
Der Regen ist ein wiederkehrendes Motiv in der Erzählung.
The rain is a recurring motif in the story.
Immer wenn die Heldin traurig war, fiel Regen auf die Stadt.
Whenever the heroine was sad, rain fell on the town.
Am Ende schien die Sonne, und sie lachte zum ersten Mal.
At the end the sun was shining, and she laughed for the first time.
Der Wechsel des Wetters spiegelt die Gefühle der Figur wider.
The change in the weather reflects the character's feelings.
Das Motiv means motif, wiederkehrend recurring, die Heldin heroine and widerspiegeln to reflect. Widerspiegeln is separable: Der Wechsel spiegelt die Gefühle wider. Note the spelling wider (against, back), not wieder (again).
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