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FIGURES OF SPEECH-HANDOUT

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14 views

FIGURES OF SPEECH-HANDOUT

Uploaded by

reyansh.taneja05
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Manav Rachna International School

Sector 14, Faridabad


Class X

Subject: English Topic – Figures of Speech (handout)

Ø SIMILE is an expressed comparison between two things of unlike nature. ‘Like’ or ‘as’ is
used to indicate the simile.
Eg. : Life is like a dream.
As clear as crystal.
Mouth like a fireplace.
Long-cramped boughs……..like newly discharged patients

Ø METAPHOR is an implied comparison between two things of unlike nature. ‘Like’ and
‘as’ are omitted
Eg. ‘chimney for a nose’, ‘The fog comes on little cat feet’, ‘languid, emerald sea’,
‘silence is golden’, ‘freedom is sweet’

Ø PERSONIFICATION gives to the animals, to inanimate objects, or to abstract ideas, the


characteristic of a person.
Eg. The wind howled in the night.
‘No Sun bury its feet in shadow’, ‘He stalks in his vivid stripes’

Ø HYPERBOLE is an obvious exaggeration


Eg. I am so hungry I could eat a horse.
Belinda giggled till she shook the house.

Ø ALLITERATION is the repetition of a letter or a sound at the beginning of a succession


of words.
eg. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
‘beard was black’, ‘gulped some grog’, ‘your yellow hair’

Ø EPITHET is the coupling of an adjective with a noun so that one always suggests the
other.
eg tragic end, peaceful dawn

Ø TRANSFERRED EPITHET is the use of an adjective normally used for other nouns.
Eg. sleepless night (the person is sleepless at night and not the night itself.)
‘silent haunches’(Fog), ‘shaking grief’(The Ball Poem)

Ø REPETITION is repetition of a sound or word or image to emphasize it.


eg. away away flew the bird
"And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep."
Ø REFRAIN: The lines of a song or poem which are repeated, especially at the end of
each verse
eg. Men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever (poem - The Brook)

Ø ALLUSION -- Is a brief and indirect reference to a person, place, thing or idea of


historical, cultural, literary or political signficance.
Eg. "Chocolate was her 'Achilles' heel." Achilles heel is an expression to indicate
one's weakness. (Achilles or Achilleus was a Greek hero of the Trojan War)
‘I am Rapunzel, I have not a care’(Amanda)
‘…they rudely called him Percival’(The Tale of Custard the dragon)

Ø OXYMORON - Is a figure of speech containing words that seem to contradict each


other. It's often referred to as a contradiction in terms.
eg. ‘noble wild beast’(How to tell wild animals)
(Act naturally qualifies as an oxymoron because the words "act" and naturally" have
completely opposite meanings. Bringing them together into one phrase produces
engaging effect.)

Ø ANAPHORA – A figure of speech in which words repeat at the beginning of successive


clauses, phrases or sentences.
Eg. And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon

Ø ONOMAETOPOEIA – Is the use of sounds that suggest the meaning of the word
Eg. I babble on the pebbles., ‘with a clatter and a clank….’

Ø ANTITHESIS – In which things mutually opposed in some particular idea or phrase are
set against each other
Eg. ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine’
‘Many are called but a few are chosen’

Ø METONYMY – It is a figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for


another with which it is closely associated
Eg. Referring to the New York stock exchange as “Wall Street”
Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears (Here, ‘ears’ refers to people’s
attention)
‘His strength behind bars…’

Ø SYNECDOCHE – In Synecdoche, a part is used to designate the whole or the whole to


designate a part
Eg. – England (that is, the English Cricket Team) won the First test match against
Australia.
Give us this day our daily bread. (That is, food)
Ø ASSONANCE - a literary device in which the repetition of similar vowel sounds takes
place in two or more words in proximity to each other within a line of poetry or prose.
Eg. Go slow over the road(repetition of the long ‘o’ sound)

Ø CONSONANCE - Consonance is a literary device that refers to the repetition of the same
consonant sounds in a line of text. The focus, in the use of consonance, is on the sound
made by consonants and not necessarily the letters themselves.

• Eg. - Tiffany's offensive remarks disturbed Jeffrey and the other staff-members.

Ø APOSTROPHE - Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses


someone (or something) that is not present or cannot respond in reality. The entity being
addressed can be an absent, dead, or imaginary person, but it can also be an inanimate
object (like stars or the ocean), an abstract idea (like love or fate), or a being (such as a
Muse or God)
Eg. The conversation in the poem ‘For Anne Gregory’

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