Simile or metaphor? Your challenge today is to recognise the difference between a simile and a metaphor, can you do it?

A simile is where two things are directly compared, and “as” or “like” is usually used to compare. For example: As cold as a dog’s nose. He was slow like a snail.

A metaphor also compares two things, but it does it more directly without using “as” or “like”. For Example: The shop was a little gold mine.

Simile  This food is like garbage. Metaphor  This food is garbage.

Lets see how clever you are Lets see how clever you are! Do you think you are clever enough to be able to tell me if these following sentences use a simile or a metaphor? We shall see!

As slippery as an eel. Simile Metaphor

He was a lion in battle. Simile Metaphor

She is as pretty as a picture. Simile Metaphor

The clouds were fluffy like cotton wool. Simile Metaphor

The striker was a goal machine. Simile Metaphor

Improving Similes If you want to say a kid is very noisy you can say: He is as noisy as an elephant. That is an ok simile, but we can improve it by thinking of something even noisier than an elephant. Well, what is noisier than an elephant? A whole herd of elephants. And so a better simile might be: He is as noisy as a herd of elephants.

Animal Groups! Pride of Lions School of fish/sharks Murder of Crows

If you want to say something is old you could say: 1st generation macs, beepers, a track tapes/8-track tapes, floppy disks! If you want to say something is old you could say: It's as old as the pharaoh. Some pharaohs are 5000 years old after all. But, how can we improve that? By thinking of someone even older than the pharaoh like the pharaoh's grandmother. So we can improve this simile like this:   It's as old as the pharaoh's grandmother.

Try to improve the following similes. It's as smelly as socks. It's as dangerous as a shark. It's as cold as a milkshake.

Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect. Hyperbole Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect. Examples I will love you forever. My house is a million miles from here. She’d kill me.