Figurative Language
• Alliteration – repetition of the same
consonant sound at the beginning of a word
• Anaphora – repetition of the same word at the
beginning of several clauses or verses.
• Antithesis - Putting contrasting ideas in
phrases
• Apostrophe – breaking off to address some
absent person or thing, an object, or
imaginary character.
Figurative Language
•
•
•
•
Alliteration
Anaphora
Antithesis
Apostrophe
• "You'll never put a better bit of butter
on your knife.“
• "Love is an ideal thing, marriage a real
thing.“
• "I don't like you sucking around,
bothering our citizens, Lebowski. I
don't like your jerk-off name. I don't
like your jerk-off face. I don't like your
jerk-off behavior, and I don't like you,
jerk-off.“
• "Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again . . .."
Figurative Language
• The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.“
• "I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I
needed a vacation, I needed a home in the
country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun.“
• "You're easy on the eyes
Hard on the heart.“
• "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own."
Figurative Language
• Assonance
Similar vowel sounds within words that are
neighbors.
• Chiasmus
The second half of an expression is balanced
against the first but with the parts reversed.
• Euphemism
The substitution of an inoffensive term for one
considered offensively explicit
Figurative Language-Matching
• "Old age should burn and rave at close of
• Euphemism
day;
Rage, rage, against the dying of the light.“
• Assonance
• Antithesis • "You forget what you want to remember,
and you remember what you want to
• Chiasmus
forget.“
• Dr. House: I'm busy.
Thirteen: We need you to . . .
Dr. House: Actually, as you can see, I'm
not busy. It's just a way to say "get the
hell out of here.“
• Everybody doesn’t like something, but
nobody doesn’t like Sara Lee.
Figures of Speech-Identification
• "In the end, the true test is not the speeches a
president delivers; it’s whether the president
delivers on the speeches.“
• "It beats as it sweeps as it cleans.“
• "We must learn to live together as brothers or
perish together as fools.“
• "Wardrobe malfunction"
Figurative Language
• Hyperbole
An exaggerated statement; the use of
exaggerated terms for the purpose of
emphasis or stronger effect.
• Irony
The use of words to convey the opposite of
their literal meaning. A statement or situation
where the meaning is the opposite.
Figurative Language - Matching
•
•
•
•
Alliteration
Hyperbole
Anaphora
Irony
• Gentlemen, you can't fight in here!
This is the War Room
• Good men are gruff and grumpy,
cranky, crabbed, and cross
• I want her to live. I want her to
breathe. I want her to aerobicize.
• Your father is so low he has to look
up to tie his shoes
Figurative Language - Identification
• Your mama's hair is so short she could stand
on her head and her hair wouldn't touch the
ground
• Great events are greeted with gleeful cheers.
• English is easy to learn if you can spell the
words.
• Get to school. Get to class. Get to work or be
last.
Figurative Language
• Litotes
An understatement in which the positive is
illustrated by showing the opposite is wrong.
Metaphor
A comparison between two unlike things that
actually have something important in
common
Figurative Language - Matching
•
•
•
•
Euphemism
Litotes
Chiasmus
Metaphor
• We are not amused
• Do I love you because you're
beautiful? Or are you beautiful
because I love you
• She went to the little ladies
room.
• The streets were a furnace.
Figurative Language - Identification
• Her eyes were stars burning brightly.
• This is not pre-school, elementary, or middle
school.
• Is it quiet in here, or am I quiet in here.
• He had an accident in his pants.
Figurative Language
• Metonymy
One word or phrase is substituted for another
that has a similar meaning; also, describing
something indirectly by referring to things around
it
• Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate sounds
• Oxymoron
Contrasting or contradictory words appear side
by side
Figurative Language - Matching
•
•
•
•
Irony
Oxymoron
Metonymy
Onomatopoeia
• The suits on Wall Street walked
off with most of our savings
• The best cure for insomnia is to
get a lot of sleep
• He is as smart as a soap dish
• "Plink, plink, fizz, fizz"
Figurative Language - Identification
• The White House asked the television
networks for air time on Monday night
• He asked for his money back but he got in for
free.
• I'm getting married in the morning!
Ding dong! the bells are gonna chime
• Original Copy
Figurative Language
• Paradox
A statement that appears to contradict itself.
• Personification
Inanimate object or ideas are given human
qualities or abilities
• Pun
A play on words, sometimes on different
senses of the same word and sometimes on
the similar sense or sound of different words
Figurative Language - Matching
•
•
•
•
Metonymy
Pun
Personification
Paradox
• The sun reaches down with
bright hands to warm her
face.
• The pen is stronger than a
sword.
• Time flies like an arrow. Fruit
flies like a banana
• War means peace
Figurative Language - Identification
• In Love there is always hate.
• You said we should be able to read our text so
that was why I was looking at my cell phone.
• War holds a bloody flag and calls it glory.
• Lend me your ear.
Figurative Language
• Simile
A stated comparison (usually formed with "like"
or "as") between two basically different things
that have some similar qualities.
• Synecdoche
A part of something is used to represent the
whole
• Understatement
A writer or a speaker deliberately makes a
situation seem less important or serious than it is
Figurative Language - Matching
•
•
•
•
Oxymoron
Understatement
Simile
Synecdoche
• 9/11
• Jumbo Shrimp
• My face looks like a weddingcake left out in the rain
• I have to have this operation.
It isn't very serious. I have this
tiny little tumor on the brain