Figurative Language

Figurative Language Metaphors, Similes, Personification, Idiom, Hyperbole, and Allusion

Metaphor • When two seemingly unlike objects are compared to each other without using comparing words such as ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘seems’, or ‘than’.

Examples • The bright sun is an orange that could be picked right out of the sky and eaten. • What two objects are being compared? • What does this metaphor mean?

Examples • The teacher swooped in quickly and snatched the note from the student’s hand with her sharp, greedy, talons. • What two things are being compared? • What does this metaphor mean?

Examples • The large, round, bowling ball of a defensive tackle sped down the alley and crashed into the quarterback. • What objects are being compared? • What does this metaphor mean?

Now it’s your turn! • With your partner, create two of your own original metaphors. • Write down what objects are being compared and what your metaphor means. • Share your metaphors with the class.

Simile • Compares to seemingly unlike objects using comparing words such as ‘like’, ‘as’, ‘seems’, or ‘than.’

Examples • The bright glowing sun looked as if it could be plucked right out of the sky and eaten. • What two objects are being compared? • What does this simile mean?

Examples • Turning, they ran to the front of the building lined up in two long lines, and marching like little tin soldiers disappeared inside the school. • What objects are being compared? • What does this simile mean?

Examples • He just lay there in the sunshine, all stretched out and limber as a rag. • What objects are being compared? • What does this simile mean?

Time Outby Jana Ghossein Help! Oh how much my heart hurts!My mouth is as dry as a desert. My throat is sore.My voice is a goner.My heart is beating as fast as a tiger. My hand is a rattling snake. My face is a tomato. Bye bye, boring life.I cannot take it anymore.I lay my head, upon my knee.Now blow the whistle referee!

Now it’s your turn! • With your partner, create two of your own original similes. • Write down what objects are being compared and what your simile means. • Share your similes with the class.

Metaphor or Simile? • Read the following examples of metaphors or similes. • Determine if the sentence is a metaphor or a simile. • Explain how you know. • Be able to tell the class what objects are being compared and what the metaphor or simile means.

Metaphor or Simile? • By the time I had reached the river, every nerve in my body was drawn up as tight as a fiddle string. • Like a king in his own domain, it towered far above the smaller trees.

Metaphor or Simile? • “You had better get out of there,” I said. “If that tree takes a notion to fall, it’ll mash you flatter than a tadpoles tail.” • “The streets were a furnace, and the sun an executioner.”

Metaphor or Simile? • The rain fell from the sky in long, sharp needles and struck me as I ran to shelter. • We are all ants working tirelessly, day to day for all eternity, to fulfill the whims of the queen.

Personification • Figurative language when a non-human objects is given human characteristics or traits.

Examples • The wind whistled a gloomy tune as it blew through darkening forest. • Thousands of blades of grass massaged my back while I lay staring at the cloudless sky. • What is being personified? • What does each personification mean?

Examples • “Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.” • "Pimento eyes bulged in their olive sockets. Lying on a ring of onion, a tomato slice exposed its seedy smile . . .." • What is being personified?

Now it’s your turn! • With your partner, create two of your own original examples of personification. • Write down what objects are being personified and what human qualities they are given. • Share your personification with the class.

WindBy J. Kurnath The wind dances in onTrotting horses’ feetIt stops in a goldenValley looking about throughFiery eyes, and then rages pastAt a mighty gallop.

Create Your OwnNature Personication Poem • Directions: • Line 1 Title + (How it arrives or begins) • Line 2 Tell what it does • Line 3 Tell how it does it • Line 4 Tell where it is • Line 5 Tell how it leaves

Hyperbole • An extreme exaggeration or overstatement.

Examples • 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.

Appetite • In a house the size of a postage stamplived a man as big as a barge.His mouth could drink the entire riverYou could say it was rather largeFor dinner he would eat a trillion beansAnd a silo full of grain,Washed it down with a tanker of milkAs if he were a drain.

Thanksgiving • A mountain of baby carrots,a turkey the size of a cow.a river full of gravya dog that says meowEvery pie known to manand gallons full of ice cream.By the time my dinner is overI surely won’t be lean.

Figurative Language