Alliteration Examples
Alliteration is a term that describes a literary stylistic device. Alliteration occurs when a series of words in a row (or close to a row)
have the same first consonant sound. For example, “She sells sea-shells down by the sea-shore” or “Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled
Peppers” are both alliterative phrases. In the former, all the words start with the “s” sound, while in the later, the letter “p” takes
precedence. Aside from tongue twisters, alliteration is also used in poems, song lyrics, and even store or brand names.
Ex.
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Becky’s beagle barked and bayed, becoming bothersome for Billy.
Carries cat clawed her couch, creating chaos.
Dan’s dog dove deep in the dam, drinking dirty water as he dove.
Eric’s eagle eats eggs, enjoying each episode of eating.
Fred’s friends fried Fritos for Friday’s food.
Garry’s giraffe gobbled gooseberry’s greedily, getting good at grabbing goodies.
Hannah’s home has heat hopefully.
Isaacs ice cream is interesting and Isaac is imbibing it.
Jesse’s jaguar is jumping and jiggling jauntily.
Kim’s kid’s kept kiting.
Larry’s lizard likes leaping leopards.
Mike’s microphone made much music.
Nick’s nephew needed new notebooks now not never.
Orson’s owl out-performed ostriches.
Peter’s piglet pranced priggishly.
Quincy’s quilters quit quilting quickly.
Ralph’s reindeer rose rapidly and ran round the room.
Sara’s seven sisters slept soundly in sand.
Tim’s took tons of tools to make toys for tots.
Uncle Uris’ united union uses umbrellas.
Vivien’s very vixen-like and vexing.
Walter walked wearily while wondering where Wally was.
Xavier’s x-rayed his xylophone.
Yarvis yanked you at yoga, and Yvonne yelled.
Zachary zeroed in on zoo keeping.
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Dunkin’ Donuts
PayPal
Best Buy
Coca-Cola
LifeLock
Park Place
American Apparel
American Airlines
Chuckee Cheese’s
Bed Bath & Beyond
Krispy Kreme
The Scotch and Sirloin
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Ronald Reagan
Sammy Sosa
Jesse Jackson
Michael Moore
William Wordsworth
Mickey Mouse
Porky Pig
Lois Lane
Marilyn Monroe
Fred Flintstone
Donald Duck
Spongebob Squarepants
Seattle Seahawks
What is an example of an anaphora?
It is the repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of several consecutive sentences or verses to
emphasize an image or a concept. The effect is to influence the person reading it.
Ex.
We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on
the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the
air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we
shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight
in the hills.We shall never surrender.
Examples of Apostrophe Figure of speech?
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"Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee . . .."
(William Wordsworth, "London, 1802")
 "Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art"
(John Keats)
 "Science! True daughter of Old Time thou art!"
(Edgar Allan Poe, "To Science")
 "Welcome, O life! I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated
conscience of my race. . . . Old father, old artificer, stand me now and ever in good stead."
(James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)
 "Blue Moon, you saw me standing alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own.
(Lorenz Hart, "Blue Moon")
 "O stranger of the future! O inconceivable being!
whatever the shape of your house,
however you scoot from place to place,
no matter how strange and colorless the clothes you may wear,
I bet nobody likes a wet dog either.
I bet everyone in your pub,
even the children, pushes her away."
(Billy Collins, "To a Stranger Born in Some Distant Country Hundreds of Years from Now")
Assonance Examples
Many examples of assonance can be found in prose and poetry. Assonance is the repetition
of vowel sounds in nearby words. It is used to reinforce the meanings of words or to set the
mood.
Here are a few short assonance examples:
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"Hear the mellow wedding bells" by Edgar Allen Poe
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"Try to light the fire"
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"I lie down by the side fo my bride"/"Fleet feet sweep by sleeping geese"/"Hear the lark and
harden to the barking of the dark fox gone to ground" by Pink Floyd
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"It's hot and it's monotonous." by Sondheim
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"The crumbling thunder of seas" by Robert Louis Stevenson
"If I bleat when I speak it's because I just got . . . fleeced." - "Deadwood" by Al Swearengen
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"It beats . . . as it sweeps . . . as it cleans!" - slogan for Hoover vacuum cleaners
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"Those images that yet/Fresh images beget,/That dolphin-torn, that gong-tormented sea." “Byzantium” by W.B. Yeats
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"Soft language issued from their spitless lips as they swished in low circles round and round
the field, winding hither and thither through the weeds" - "Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" by
James Joyce
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"The spider skins lie on their sides, translucent and ragged, their legs drying in knots." "Holy the Firm" by Annie Dillard
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"The setting sun was licking the hard bright machine like some great invisible beast on its
knees." - "Death, Sleep, and the Traveler" by John Hawkes
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"I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed and restless." - "With Love" by Thin Lizzy
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"In the over-mastering loneliness of that moment, his whole life seemed to him nothing but
vanity." - "Night Rider" by Robert Penn Warren
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"A lanky, six-foot, pale boy with an active Adam's apple, ogling Lo and her orange-brown
bare midriff, which I kissed five minutes later, Jack." - "Lotita" by Vladimir Nabokov
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"Strips of tinfoil winking like people" - "The Bee Meeting" by Sylvia Plath
Figures of Speech – Chiasmus
What is chiasmus?
Chiasmus is a figure of speech in which words, grammatical constructions, or concepts are repeated in
reverse order, in the same or a modified form. In other words, the clauses display inverted parallelism.
Examples:
These are examples of chiasmus:
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He knowingly led and we followed blindly
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Swift as an arrow flying, fleeing like a hare afraid
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'Bad men live that they may eat and drink,
whereas good men eat and drink that they may live.'
Socrates (fifth century B.C.)
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_____________________________________________________________________________
_________
Examples of Euphemism
 Passed away instead of died
 Correctional facility instead of jail
 Departed instead of died
 Differently-abled instead of handicapped or disabled
 Fell off the back of a truck instead of stolen
 Ethnic cleansing instead of genocide
 Turn a trick instead of engage in prostitution
 Negative patient outcome instead of dead
 Relocation center instead of prison camp
 Collateral damage instead of accidental deaths
 Letting someone go instead of firing someone
 Put to sleep instead of euthanize
 Pregnancy termination instead of abortion
 On the streets instead of homeless
Examples of Hyperboles
 I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
 I have a million things to do.
 I had to walk 15 miles to school in the snow, uphill.
 I had a ton of homework.
 If I can’t buy that new game, I will die.
 He is as skinny as a toothpick.
 This car goes faster than the speed of light.
 That new car costs a bazillion dollars.
 We are so poor; we don’t have two cents to rub together.
 That joke is so old, the last time I heard it I was riding on a dinosaur.
 They ran like greased lightning.
 He's got tons of money.
 You could have knocked me over with a feather.
 Her brain is the size of a pea.
 He is older than the hills.
Examples of Irony
Situational Irony
This type of irony may occur when the outcome of a certain situation is completely different than what was initially
expected. It is often referred to as an “irony of events.”
Examples of irony in the situational category include a contradiction or sharp contrast.
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Example: A person who claims to be a vegan and avoids meat but will eat a slice of pepperoni pizza because they
are hungry. It may not make sense, but it is an illustration of irony.
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Example: A man who is a traffic cop gets his license suspended for unpaid parking tickets.
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Example: An ambulance driver goes to a nightime bike accident scene and runs over the accident victim because
the victim has crawled to the center of the road with their bike.
Cosmic Irony
This type of irony can be attributed to some sort of misfortune. Usually cosmic irony is the end result of fate or
chance.
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Example: Gambling. If you are playing blackjack chances are you will be up (making money) for awhile, and
then just when you thought things were going good, you lose it all.
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Example: The Titanic was promoted as being 100% unsinkable; but, in 1912 the ship sank on its maiden voyage.
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Example: At a ceremony celebrating the rehabilitation of seals after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, at an
average cost of $80,000 per seal, two seals were released back into the wild only to be eaten within a minute by a killer
whale.
Cosmic irony feeds on the notion that people cannot see the effects of their actions, and sometimes the outcome of a
person’s actions may be out of their control.
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic irony occurs when there is miscommunication in a book, play or film and the audience is smarter than the
characters.
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Example: As an audience member, you realize that if a character walks into an abandoned warehouse, chances
are a killer is waiting... but because you are a member of the audience you cannot disclose the information to the character.
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Example: In Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Romeo finds Juliet in a drugged state and he thinks she is
dead. He kills himself. When Juliet wakes up she finds Romeo dead and kills herself.
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Example: In Macbeth by William Shakespeare Macbeth appears to be loyal to Duncan but he is planning
Duncan's murder. Duncan doesn't know Macbeth's plans but the audience knows what is going to happen.
This is most often seen in horror films. If you are watching a horror movie, you know by the actions of a character that
their number is about to be up.
Socratic Irony
This type of irony is most relative in the great world of academia and is related to the Socratic teaching method. The
Socratic teaching method encourages students to think and present opposing views while the teacher plays ignorant.
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Example: Later on in the lesson the teacher completely embarrasses the student, by illustrating how their points
were both foolish and ignorant.
The Socratic teaching method is widely used at prestigious colleges and universities on the undergraduate level where
bustling minds are quick to ignore the obvious in exchange for coming up with a grand explanation to a not so grand
problem.
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Example: Another way in which Socratic irony is used is when a person pretends to be completely ignorant about
a topic in an argument just to get an upper hand in the argument.
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Example: A professor never answers questions and does not explain key concepts of the course; however he
expects students to come to class after having read their assignment, ready to answer the professor's questions.
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Example: A child asks his parents how the presents got under the Christmas tree to which the parents reply that
they have no idea.
Socratic irony can be used as a tactical strategy in getting what you want.
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is yet another popular form of irony where the user intends to wittily attack or make a derogatory statement
about something or someone. Often, sarcasm is confused with irony instead of being a recognized form of irony.
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Example: A beautiful, actress walked by a table of talent agents as one said “there goes a good time that was had
by all.” The talent agent said the phrase referring to the young actress’ extracurricular activities with fellow talent agents.
It was a derogatory statement, yet created with wit.
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Example: At a party a lady tells Winston Churchhill he is drunk to which Churchhill said "My dear, you are
ugly...but tomorrow I shall be sober."
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Example: In "The Canterbury Tales" Chaucer criticizes the clergy who had become corrupt, by referring to the
Friar as a "wanton and merry" person who takes bribes and seduces women.
Sarcasm can often be funny, and witty yet simultaneously it can be hurtful and humiliating.
Example of litotes?
It is a figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite.
Examples:
A. She's not the brightest girl in the class. (She's stupid!)
B. He's not the most handsome fellow! (he's ugly!)
C. They aren't the happiest couple around. (they're unhappy)
Metaphor Examples
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Sea of grief - How and where does one come across a sea that is filled not with water, but with grief?
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Fishing - It is not used to mean that the person is actually fishing; it is an expression which is used to
signify that the person is looking for something that is difficult to obtain.
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Success is a sense of achievement, it is not an illegitimate child! - The saying is used to reinforce the
age-old belief that everyone wants to take credit for something that became a success, either by fluke or by
conscious effort. On the other hand, no matter how much effort or creativity may have gone into an enterprise,
the moment it is considered a failure, no one wants to take responsibility for it, much like an abandoned infant.
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Broken heart - Your heart is not literally broken into pieces; you just feel hurt and sad.
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The light of my life - The person described by this metaphor isn't really providing physical light. He
or she is just someone who brings happiness or joy.
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It's raining men - Men do not literally pour from the sky; there are simply an abundance of male
suitors around at the time.
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Time is a thief - Time isn't really stealing anything, this metaphor just indicates that time passes
quickly and our lives pass us by.
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He is the apple of my eye - There is, of course, no real apple in a person's eye. The "apple" is someone
beloved and held dear.
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Bubby personality - A bubbly personality doesn't mean a person is bubbling over with anything, just
that the person is cheerful.
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Feel blue - No one actually ever feels like the color blue, although many people say they are "feeling
blue" to mean they are feeling sad.
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Fade off to sleep - You don't actually fade, you simply go to sleep.
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Inflamed your temper - The news inflamed your temper is not a situation where there is any actual fire
or flames, it is just a situation where someone gets mad.
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Reeks of infidelty - When said about a cheating partner, this doesn't actually mean that there is a literal
smell. Instead, it is just apparent that the person is cheating.
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Rollercoaster of emotions - A rollercoaster of emotions doesn't exist anywhere, so when people are on
a rollercoaster of emotions, they are simply experiencing lots of ups and downs.
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Stench of failure - The stench of failure is strong, according to the common metaphor, but of course
failing doesn't really smell.
Examples of Metonymy
 Crown - in place of a royal person
 The White House - in place of the President or others who work there
 The suits - in place of business people
 Dish - for an entire plate of food
 Cup - for a mug
 The Pentagon - to refer to the staff
 The restaurant - to refer to the staff
 Ears - for giving attention ("Lend me your ears!" from Mark Antony inJulius Caesar)
 Eyes - for sight
 The library - for the staff or the books
 Pen - for the written word
 Sword - for military might
 Silver fox - for an attractive older man
 Hand - for help
 The name of a country - used in place of the government, economy, etc.
 The name of a church - used in place of its individual members
 The name of a sports team - used in place of its individual members
Examples of Onomatopoeia
 bloop
 splash
 spray
 sprinkle
 squirt
 drip
 drizzle
Examples of Oxymorons
 Great Depression
 Jumbo shrimp
 Cruel to be kind
 Pain for pleasure
 Clearly confused
 Act naturally
 Beautifully painful
 Painfully beautiful
 Deafening silence
 Pretty ugly
 Pretty fierce
 Pretty cruel
 Definitely maybe
Examples of Paradox
 You can save money by spending it.
 I'm nobody.
 "What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw
 Wise fool
 Bittersweet
 "I can resist anything but temptation."-Oscar Wilde
 I'm a compulsive liar- am I lying when I say that?
 A rich man is no richer than a poor man.
 Nobody goes to that restaurant because it is too crowded.
 You shouldn't go in the water until you know how to swim.
 If you didn't get this message, call me.
 The person who wrote something so stupid can't write at all
 Men work together whether they work together or apart. - Robert Frost
Examples of Personification
 The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.
 The run down house appeared depressed.
 The first rays of morning tiptoed through the meadow.
 She did not realize that opportunity was knocking at her door.
 He did not realize that his last chance was walking out the door.
 The bees played hide and seek with the flowers as they buzzed from one to another.
 The wind howled its mighty objection.
 The snow swaddled the earth like a mother would her infant child.
 The river swallowed the earth as the water continued to rise higher and higher.
 Time flew and before we knew it, it was time for me to go home.
Examples of Puns
 A good pun is its own reword.
 I bet the butcher the other day that he couldn’t reach the meat that was on the top shelf. He
refused to take the bet, saying that the steaks were too high.
 Corduroy pillows are making headlines.
 Did you hear about the optometrist who fell into a lens grinder and made a spectacle of
himself?
Examples of Similes
 “cute as a kitten,” comparing the way someone looks to the way a kitten looks
 “as busy as a bee” comparing someone’s level of energy to a fast-flying bee
 "as snug as a bug in a rug" comparing someone who is very cozy to how comfortable a bug can be in a
rug
 "as happy as a clam" comparing someone's happiness to the contentment of a clam
 "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get." comparing the uncertainty
of life to the uncertainty of choosing a chocolate from a box
 "as agile as a monkey" implying someone can move as well as a monkey does
 "as black as coal" comparing the color of something dark to the very-dark coal color
 "as blind as a bat" indicating that the person cannot see any better than a bat can
Examples of Synecdoche
A synecdoche is a type of trope, which is a figure of speech. When used in literature, a synecdoche
will add to the visual imagery of the passage and enhance the reader’s experience.
 A synecdoche may use part of something to represent the entire whole.
 It may use an entire whole thing to represent a part of it.
 It can use a word or phrase as a class that will express less or more than the word or
phrase actually means.
 It may use a group of things that refer to a larger group or use a large group to refer to a
smaller group.
 A synecdoche may also refer to an object by the material it is made fromor refer to the
contents in a container by the name of the container.
Examples of understatement?
Saying "We've had a little rain," when the neighborhood is flooded.
Saying "It's just a scratch," when there is a huge dent.
Searched Websites : http://examples.yourdictionary.com , http://djrnb.weebly.com/english.html
ENGLISH
(FIGURE OF SPEECHES)
Name
Mrs. Quimpo
II- CHICO - ENGLISH