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.