Read this story on Yak Yacker with clickable word help, full story audio, and lesson notes below the text.
This version is written for English-speaking learners who want a friendly reading experience in English.
Hare is . Tortoise is . Hare Tortoise.
Hare says, "You are so !" Tortoise says, "Let's have a ."
They . Hare . Tortoise .
Hare sees he is . He says, "I am fast. I can ."
Hare . Tortoise walks and walks. He does not .
Tortoise Hare. Hare . He runs fast. But it is .
Tortoise . The animals . They say, "Slow and steady wins the race!"
The hare is fast. The tortoise is slow. The hare laughs at the tortoise.
The hare says, "You are so slow!" The tortoise says, "Let's have a race."
They start. The hare runs very fast. The tortoise walks slowly.
The hare sees he is far ahead. He says, "I am fast. I can sleep."
The hare sleeps. The tortoise walks and walks. He does not stop.
The tortoise passes the hare. The hare wakes up. He runs fast. But it is too late.
The tortoise wins. The animals cheer. They say, "Slow and steady wins the race!"
Let's meet some friendly words from the story. They help us talk about how things move and what happens in a race.
- fast - very quick
- slow - not quick
- race - a running competition
- win - to come first
The story uses short, clear sentences. We use 'is' to describe and 'says' to tell what someone speaks.
- Hare is fast. Tortoise is slow.
- Hare says, 'You are so slow!'
- Tortoise says, 'Let's have a race.'
Tortoise wins because he doesn't stop. The animals cheer: 'Slow and steady wins the race!' This teaches us that working carefully and not giving up is powerful.
- Hare is very fast but sleeps.
- Tortoise walks slowly and never stops.
- Slow and steady wins the race!
Hooray! You read the whole story. Now it's time to play with your new English skills.
- Tell the story to a friend using 'fast', 'slow', and 'race'.
- Make a sentence with 'is': My pet is ___.
- Make a sentence with 'says': My friend says, '___'.
The Tortoise and the Hare 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.
