Welcome to our A1 beginner English story of The Ant and the Grasshopper! In this classic fable, you'll meet a hardworking ant who gathers food for the winter, and a carefree grasshopper who loves to sing all summer long. When the cold weather comes, the grasshopper learns an important lesson about preparing ahead. It's a simple but meaningful story for English learners.
Read along and click on any word to see its meaning instantly. Listen to the story audio to practice your listening and pronunciation. Plus, we have lesson notes to help you understand the vocabulary and grammar. Enjoy learning English with this free reading experience!
In the warm summer, Ant was very .
She every day.
She food to her home.
"I am for winter," she said.
did not work.
He played his music and sang songs.
" with me, Ant!" he said.
"," said Ant. "Winter will come."
Grasshopper laughed. "Winter is !" he said.
Summer . came.
The leaves .
Ant worked more. Grasshopper played.
Then winter with and snow.
Grasshopper had no food.
He was very cold and very hungry.
He went to Ant's warm house.
"," he said.
Ant gave him some food.
"Thank you," said Grasshopper. "I was ."
", I will work too," he said.
Ant smiled. "We can work ," she said.
And so the next summer, they worked and played.
Ant stayed busy during the hot summer.
Every day she worked hard.
She took food to her house.
She said, 'I'm preparing for winter.'
Grasshopper didn't work.
He made music and sang.
He said, 'Come play with me, Ant!'
Ant said, 'No, thanks. Winter is coming.'
Grasshopper laughed and said, 'Winter is far off!'
Summer finished. Fall arrived.
Leaves became gold and red.
Ant kept working. Grasshopper still played.
Then winter came with cold wind and snow.
Grasshopper didn't have food.
He felt very cold and hungry.
He went to Ant's cozy house.
He said, 'Please help me.'
Ant gave him food.
Grasshopper said, 'Thanks. I was foolish.'
He said, 'Next summer, I'll work too.'
Ant smiled and said, 'We can work together.'
So the next summer, they both worked and played.
Let's learn some important words from the story. These words will help you talk about work, weather, and feelings.
- Busy - having a lot to do
- Work - to do a job
- Food - things we eat
- Play - to have fun
The story uses the simple past tense to talk about things that happened before. In English, many verbs add -ed in the past.
- Work → worked
- Play → played
- Carry → carried
- Laugh → laughed
The story mentions summer, autumn, and winter. Let's look at words for seasons and things in nature.
- Summer - the hot season
- Autumn - when leaves fall
- Winter - the cold season
- Snow - white ice that falls
You did great! Try to use these new words when you speak or write. You can also tell the story to a friend.
- Read the story again
- Practice past tense verbs
- Learn new nature words
The Ant and the Grasshopper comes from an older public-domain story tradition and is best known as a public_domain_fable_retelling. This Yak Yacker article is an original learner retelling based on public-domain source material, so the wording here is simplified for modern learners rather than copied from one old edition.
Older printings, translations, and retellings of this story can vary quite a bit. This version is adapted for A1 Beginner learners studying English.
If you want to keep going, browse more in our English section and review the A1 English Vocabulary List. After that, try English Root Words and Prefixes for another useful next step.
