Figurative Language Ms. Newberry English

Hyperbole Examples: His feet are as big as boats. Hyperbole is an exaggeration. Examples: His feet are as big as boats. Your mother is so fat she sat on a rainbow and skittles popped out.

More Examples: I tried calling you a million times. It’s raining cats and dogs. I nearly died laughing. The pavement was so hot our feet fried.

Personification Personification is where a writer often makes their stories or poems more interesting by having an animal or an object speak or act as if it were a person. Ex: The sofa wept under the weight of all the people. (A sofa cannot actually weep or cry.)

More Examples: The ancient car groaned into third gear. The cloud scattered rain throughout the city. The leaf danced as it fell from the tree.

Simile A simile is a comparison using like or as. It usually compares two objects that are not similar. Ex: She is as quiet as a mouse.

More Examples: When I am tired, I am like a bear in hibernation. I am as mad as a hornet. I am floating on air like a balloon because I am so happy.

Metaphors A metaphor states that one thing is something else. It is a comparison, but it does NOT use like or as to make the comparison. Ex: Her hair is silk. The sentence is comparing (or stating) that hair is silk.

More Examples: Ted is a nervous cat. Those two are peas in a pod. My hands are ice cubes.

Alliteration Alliteration is a constant rhyme. For instance: Dirty dreaming dogs dizzily drunkenly destroy damp dreary dinosaurs down disgustingly damp dungeons during dismal December days.

More Examples: Bertha Bartholomew blew big blue bubbles. She sells sea shells by the sea shore. Vicky Vic viewed a very valuable vase. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Is it alliteration, metaphor, simile, personification, or hyperbole? The window moaned as it opened. John is a sly cat. Norris Newton never needed new noodles. He was so tall, his head touched the clouds. He shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly.