Read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in English — and understand every line.
Read “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass in English. Tap any word for its meaning, hear how it sounds, and save it to a memory-driven review schedule.
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DICTIONARY
TRANSLATION
apreciar, atesorar
to feel warm affection for; to hold something dear.
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The opening
How “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” begins
I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot County, Maryland.
I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.
By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.
I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.
Public domain — the whole book is yours to read in the app.
Vocabulary
Words to know before you start
The 30 words you will meet most often in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” at level B2 and above, with how many times each one appears.
- master
- slavery
- whip
- thus
- soul
- freedom
- overseer
- seldom
- regard
- mistress
- mean
- presence
- bear
- circumstance
- fellow
- bloody
- cruelty
- commence
- severe
- seek
- liberty
- determination
- noble
- engage
- seize
- blow
- deem
- subject
- strike
- entirely
The meanings here are the everyday ones. In the reader, tap a word to see the sense this sentence uses.
Grammar
Grammar you will meet in “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”
How much of each kind of grammar “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” uses, counted in the sentences the Reader marks: per 10,000 words, compared with the other books in the library.
- Passive voice
- Relative clauses
- Perfect tenses
- Phrasal verbs
- -ing forms and to-infinitives
- Modal verbs
- Reported speech
- Conditionals
Constructions to look for
- Phrasal verb with 'up' and preposition He would, for this purpose, leave his horse tied up in the woods.
- -ing clause as adverbial (Feeling tired, …) Upon either side we saw grim death, assuming the most horrid shapes.
- Subject relative clause with who/that/which I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday.
Counted the way the Reader shows it: one card per construction in a sentence. Open the book in the Reader and tap a highlighted phrase to see the rule.
Library
What you get while you read
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Tap to translate
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Save what matters
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Grammar in context
Notable structures light up in the text, with a short explanation tied to the sentence you're reading.
About the book
Why Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a great book to read in English
On LangOrbit you read “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” with a safety net: the translation is one tap away when a sentence runs long, every word opens its meaning in context and can be saved for spaced-repetition review, and the grammar behind the trickier lines is explained right where you meet it.
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Read “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass in English. Tap any word for its meaning, hear how it sounds, and save it to a memory-driven review schedule.
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