What Do Stories Teach Us?

Have you ever watched a scene from a series and thought: "I don't know how to say exactly what I'm feeling right now"? That happens because we often know the emotion, but not the word for it. In English — just like in Portuguese — having a rich emotional vocabulary makes all the difference in how we communicate, write, and understand stories.

Words that describe feelings are called adjectives of feeling (or adjectives of emotion). They work exactly like any other adjective: they describe or modify a noun or pronoun. The difference is that they specifically tell us about the emotional state of a person.

How to Use Them in a Sentence

Adjectives of feeling can appear in two main positions in a sentence:

Essential Feeling Adjectives — From Basic to Advanced

Look at the chart below. Notice how emotions can be positive, negative, or even mixed — just like real life.

-ed vs. -ing: A Classic Confusion

In English, many feeling adjectives come in two forms. Pay close attention — this is one of the most common mistakes!

Imagine you're describing a scene from a movie: a character runs, jumps, climbs, and escapes. Without prepositions of movement, you can only say "he ran… and then he went… and then he moved." Boring and imprecise! With prepositions of movement, the scene comes alive: "He ran through the crowd, jumped over the fence, slid under the barrier, and disappeared into the shadows."

Prepositions of movement (also called prepositions of direction) are words that show how something or someone moves from one place to another. They always follow a verb of motion.

Across vs. Through — The Most Confused Pair

Both mean moving from one side to another, but there's an important difference:

Into vs. In — Another Tricky Pair

INTO shows movement (you're going from outside to inside). IN shows position (you're already inside). Think of into as having the energy of movement built in!

"She walked into the room and sat in the chair." — First she entered (movement = into), then she was positioned (place = in).

Up / Down / Over / Under — Direction and Dimension

Think about the moment you heard a piece of surprising news. What were you doing at that exact moment? Were you listening to music? Were you talking to a friend? That snapshot of an ongoing action in the past is exactly what the Past Continuous tense (also called Past Progressive) captures.

While the Simple Past tells us that something happened and finished, the Past Continuous tells us that an action was already in progress at a specific moment in the past. It paints the background of the story.

How to Form the Past Continuous

When Do We Use Past Continuous?

Signal Words — Clues That Point to Past Continuous

The -ING Spelling Rules (Don't Forget These!)

The real magic happens when you combine both tenses. In storytelling, the Past Continuous sets the scene — it's the background, the atmosphere, the world that was already in motion. The Past Simple delivers the events — the things that happened, one after another, that changed that world.

Think of it like a movie: the Past Continuous is the camera showing you the setting, and the Past Simple is the action that cuts into the scene.

Using WHEN and WHILE

These two connecting words work differently — and that difference matters a lot:

A Story to Analyse — Read It Carefully

"It was a cold October night. The wind was blowing through the empty streets and leaves were falling from the trees. Maya was walking home from her friend's house when she noticed something strange. A light was flickering in the old abandoned house at the end of the road. She stopped. Her heart was beating fast. Suddenly, the front door opened and a cat jumped out. Maya laughed, feeling relieved, and continued walking towards her house."

Read the story again and notice:

A Mini Story Using All Four Topics

Now see how all this lesson's content can appear together naturally:

"Lara was feeling nervous as she walked through the school corridor. Her hands were trembling. She was heading towards the stage when someone called her name. She turned aroundIt was Ana, running across the hallway. 'You're going to be amazing!' Ana said. Lara smiled, suddenly feeling grateful. She took a deep breath, walked onto the stage, and began to sing."

The title of Unit 3 — "What do stories teach us?" — is not just a grammar exercise. It's a real philosophical question. Stories, whether they're books, films, songs, or games, carry values, emotions, and lessons. When you learn English, you gain access to an enormous universe of stories that were told in that language — and you begin to understand the world through different eyes.

Reading for Meaning — The Skill Behind All Skills

When you read a text in English, it's not enough to just translate word by word. Strong readers ask themselves questions as they read:

Read and Interpret — A Text About Stories

"Stories are the way humans make sense of the world. Long before writing existed, people were sitting around fires, telling stories about their day, their fears, their hopes. Every culture, every language, every generation has its own stories. A good story does not just entertain — it challenges you to feel empathy, to think differently, and sometimes to question what you thought you knew. When Katniss Everdeen was fighting against the Capitol in The Hunger Games, millions of young readers were thinking about injustice, courage, and survival. When Hermione Granger was studying in the Hogwarts library while her friends were playing Quidditch, readers were learning that intelligence and dedication are superpowers too. Stories do not give you answers — they give you better questions."

Interpret the Text — Answer These Questions

Quick Review — The Complete Picture