Telling stories is one of the most basic forms of communication. Stories follow a common format in English:

1. Setup: You describe the place, time, and what was happening.
2. Event: You talk about an interesting event that happened.
3. Punchline: You tell what the most important and interesting event was.
4. Reaction: You tell what you thought or how you acted in response to the event.
5. Result: You say what happened after these events.

There are certain phrases that are common to use for each of these steps:

Setup

• It was (adjective)

  It was early in the morning.

• (someone) was (doing something)

  I was riding the train.

• There was (something) (somewhere)

  There was a teenage guy sitting next to me.

Event

• (someone) (did something)

  He looked at me.

• (someone) said, "(sentence)"

  He said, "You've got something on your shirt."

• (someone) told (someone) that (clause)

  He told me that I had something on my shirt.

Punchline

• (someone) did (something), and (result)

  I looked down at my shirt, and saw that there was a huge coffee stain!

Reaction

• I thought, "(sentence)"

  I thought, "How in the world did that get there? I don't even drink coffee!"

• It was (emotion)

  It was so embarassing!

Conclusion

• So (someone) (did something)

  So I got off at the next stop and bought a new shirt.
  

• Because of that, (something happened)

  Because of that, I was 30 minutes late to work that day.

• Since then, (someone) always (does something)

  Since then, I always check my shirt before I leave the house.

Of course there are other phrases that you can use for each step, and sometimes you can skip a step or change the order. But in general, it's best to stick close to this outline because it makes it easier for the listeners to understand the point of the story.

PhraseMix Lessons on Storytelling:

• "I got pulled over on my way home last night."
• "I saw her walking down the street, playing with her phone."
• "As I was riding the train home, I realized that I'd left my keys in the closet at work."
• "It turns out that my roommate had left his window unlocked anyway."
• "I was supposed to bring it back by 6:00."
• "I would've had to pay a hundred-dollar fine if it had been late."
• "I was halfway there when I realized I didn't have my wallet."