Figurative Language

Simile

• Comparing two dissimilar things using like or as

• The sun is like a big, orange marble in the sky.

• Helen’s eyes are as blue as the sky.

Change the sentences by adding a simile

• Joe was mad.

• Missy was happy.

• Brett was scared.

Personification

• Giving human traits to something that is not human

• The alarm clocked screamed at me to wake up.

Personify the following

• The wind

• The chair

• The fire

Hyperbole

• An extreme exaggeration

• We ate ice cream cones with scoops a mile high.

• Cindy is so hungry she could eat a whole cow.

Add a hyperbole to the sentences. *Be careful not to make it a simile. • The line was long.

• It was a hot day.

• Pam was thirsty.

Metaphor

• Comparing two dissimilar things by saying one thing is the other.

• Her hair was silk.

• Peter was a raging bull on the basketball court.

Change the sentences by adding a metaphor

• Joe was mad.

• Missy was happy.

• Brett was scared.

Alliteration

• The repeating of the first sound in more than two words in a sentence.

• The wild and wooly walrus waited on the beach.

• Kevin killed the king with his karate moves.

• More alliteration examples

Onomatopoeia

• A word that sounds like what it means

• buzz, hiss, roar, woof, boom, crash

Idiom

• An expression that has meaning but does not mean what it says literally.

• My homework was a piece of cake.

• Tim woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

• Idiom site