Erzählender

Erzählender is the attributive form of the German present participle of erzählen, meaning narrating or storytelling. It is used as an adjective to describe things that tell or relate events through narration. In literary analysis and grammar, erzählender signals an active, telling mode of discourse and is often used to discuss narrative technique, voices, or passages within a text.

As an attributive adjective, erzählender agrees with the gender, number, and case of the noun it modifies. Examples: masculine nominative singular: ein erzählender Stil; feminine nominative singular: eine erzählerische Stimme (also common: eine erzählende Stimme); neuter nominative singular: ein erzählendes Kapitel. The endings change in other cases, for instance: des erzählenden Stils, der erzählenden Stimme, dem erzählenden Kapitel. In practice, related phrases include erzählerin passages or sections and similar constructs that emphasize storytelling rather than description.

In usage, erzählender describes aspects of narration rather than content alone. It appears in discussions of narrative point of view, voice, and structure, such as “eine erzählende Perspektive” or “eine erzählende Passage,” to indicate parts of a text that relay events through narration. The term helps distinguish the narrative function from purely descriptive or reflective components.

Relation to other terms: Erzähler denotes the narrator, the person who recounts events, while erzählende or erzählerisch describe how the narration is conveyed. The form is derived from erzählen and is part of standard German grammar, where participles used attributively inflect like adjectives.