Figurative Language

“Figuring it Out”
 Figurative and Literal Language
Literally: words function exactly as defined
The car is blue.
He caught the football.
Figuratively: figure out what it means
I’ve got your back.

You’re a doll.
^Figures of Speech
 Watch and Learn
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=rW4DtZGxjq0
 Simile
Comparison of two things using “like” or “as.”

Examples
The metal twisted like a ribbon.
She is as sweet as candy.
I’m sick as a dog.
 Important!
Using “like” or “as” doesn’t make a simile.

A comparison must be made.

Not a Simile: I like pizza.

Simile: The moon is like a pizza.

 Metaphor
Two things are compared without using
“like” or “as.”

Examples

All the world is a stage.

Her heart is stone.

You are a couch potato

 Personification
Giving human traits to objects or ideas.

Examples

The sunlight danced.

Water on the lake shivers.
The streets are calling me.
 Hyperbole
Exaggerating to show strong feeling or effect.

Examples
I will love you forever.
My house is a million miles away.
She’d kill me.
 Understatement
Expression with less strength than expected.
The opposite of hyperbole.

I’ll be there in one second.

This won’t hurt a bit.

 Onomatopoeia
• A word that “makes” a sound
• SPLAT
• PING
• SLAM
• POP
• POW
 Idiom
• A saying that isn’t meant to be taken
literally.
• Doesn’t “mean” what it says
• Don’t be a stick in the mud!
• You’re the apple of my eye.
• I have an ace up my sleeve.
 Oxymoron
• When two words are put together that contradict
each other. “Opposites”
• Jumbo Shrimp
• Pretty Ugly
• Freezer Burn
• Known Secret
• Deafening Silence
• Awfully Nice
• Confirmed Rumor
 Pun
• A form of “word play” in which
words have a double meaning.
• I wondered why the baseball was
getting bigger and then it hit me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-
gravity. It’s impossible to put it
down.
• I was going to look for my missing
watch, but I didn’t have the time.
 Proverb
• A figurative saying in which a bit of
“wisdom” is given.
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away
• The early bird catches the worm
 Quiz
On a separate sheet of paper…
1. I will put an example of figurative
language on the board.
2. You will write whether it is an simile,
metaphor, personification, hyperbole,
pun, proverb, idiom, onomatopoeia,
oxymoron or understatement.
3. You can use your notes.
 1

He drew a line as straight as an arrow.

 2

Knowledge is a kingdom and all who learn

are kings and queens.
 3

Can I see you for a second?

 4
The sun was beating down on me.
 5

A flag wags like a fishhook there in the sky.

 6
I'd rather take baths
with a man-eating shark,
or wrestle a lion
alone in the dark,
eat spinach and liver,
pet ten porcupines,
than tackle the homework,
my teacher assigns.
 7
Ravenous and savage
from its long
polar journey,

the North Wind

is searching
for food—
 8
Dinner is on the house.
 9

Can I have one of your chips?

 10
Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
 11.
• The clouds smiled down at me.
 12.
• SPLAT!
 13.
• She is as sweet as candy
 14.
• I could sleep forever!
 15.
• He drove his expensive car into a tree and
found out how the Mercedes bends
 16.
• I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got
over it
 17.
• The wheat field was a sea of gold.
 18.
• The streets called to him.
 19.
• POP!
 20.
• She was dressed to the nines.
 21.
• The early bird catches the worm.
 22.
• Old news
 23.
• Your face is killing me!
 24.
• She was as white as a ghost.
 25.
• She has a skeleton in her closet.
 Poetic Sound Devices
Alliteration

The first consonant sound is repeated

Ex: I have stood still and stopped the sound

of feet (Robert Frost)
 Poetic Sound Devices
Onomatopoeia

The word imitates the sound that that object

makes.

Ex: Tick-tock; click, clack; drip, drop; sizzle

 Poetic Sound Devices
Consonance

Consonants within words are repeated.

Ex: All mammals named Sam must be

clammy.
 Poetic Sound Devices
Assonance

Vowel sounds within words are repeated.

Ex: I must confess that in my quest I felt

depressed and restless.
 Challenge!
Find alliteration, assonance, and consonance in the following
poem:
Eldorado
Gaily bedlight
A gallant knight
In sunshine and in shadow
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado
~Edgar Allan Poe (excerpt)
 Answer
Alliteration: Gaily, gallant;
sunshine, singing, song, search

Assonance: bedlight, knight, sunshine

Consonance: sunshine, shadow

 Challenge!
Find all the examples of onomatopoeia in the following poem.
Storm
Booming and banging thunder in the air
Crashing and rumbling waves against wet rock
Booming and scraping, lighting the sky
Swishing and sloshing rain on a windscreen
Metallic thuds on a tin roof
Swishing and swooshing the flooding road
Howling and moaning, wind attacking
Wavering, crashing, and sizzling
Power everywhere
Thudding and banging hail on every window
Slamming and echoing doors in the house
~Olisha Starr
 Answer
Storm
Booming and banging thunder in the air
Crashing and rumbling waves against wet rock
Booming and scraping, lighting the sky
Swishing and sloshing rain on a windscreen
Metallic thuds on a tin roof
Swishing and swooshing the flooding road
Howling and moaning, wind attacking
Wavering, crashing, and sizzling
Power everywhere
Thudding and banging hail on every window
Slamming and echoing doors in the house
~Olisha Starr
 Let’s Play!
• Figurative Language in Disney Movies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Be2BR8fNZ_Q
• Figurative Language Game Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
4UeRBAmevA
• Figurative Language Quiz:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=XkCnfsRnKWc