Figures of speech

1. Figuresofspeech

2. LiteralvsfigurativeLanguage
• Literal:
• Means exactly what the words say.
• Precise, simple or flat
• Example: Amanda’smother isaveryniceperson.
• Figurative:
• Deeper meaning.
• Pushes the reader to explore and understand
• Example: Time is money.

3. Doyouknow?
• An apple a day keeps the doctor away.( Proverb)
• shed crocodile tears(idiom)
• Betty Botter bought butter, But the butter was bitter, So Betty bought better
butter to make the bitter butter better.( Alliteration)
• My alarm clock yells at me to get out of bed every
morning(personification) She is as innocent as an angel(Simile)
• She is an angel.(metaphor).

4. Figuresofspeech
• Figures of speech are literary devices. They are used:
• By Writers of prose and poetry to elicit emotion.
• to express a meaning other than the literal meaning of the words.
• to make it effective & persuasive.
• to add depth & color to language.
• to express complex ideas in a short space,
• to make the writing lively.
• carefully in a formal context.
• most commonly without even realizing.
• There are several types: simile, metaphor, paradox, irony, personification etc.

5. idioms
An idiom is a figure of speech that means something
different than a literal translation of the words.
They are particular to a language or culture
Examples include:
A hot potato=a controversial issue.
Bite bullet=decide to do something difficult.
To cost an arm and a leg=very expensive.
The elephant in the room’ =A matter orproblem
Hit Nail on the head= say something that is exactlyright
Born with a silver spoon in the mouth= rich
Beat around the bush= avoid saying what you mean
Sell like hot cakes= sells very fast.
On cloud nine= very happy
When pigs fly= highly unlikely to ever happen

6. PROVERB
• A proverb is a short, commonplace saying that is universally understood in today’s language and
used to express general truths. Many proverbs exist in more than one language.
• Examples include:
• Don’t cry over spilt milk. (It is not literally about milk).
• Don’t count your chickens before they hatch! (To act like something has
happened before it happens)
• Birds of a feather flock together (People who are similar spend time together)
• Knowledge is power ( knowledge is more powerful than physical strength )

7. simile
● Compares two separate things that are not related & shows common qualities.
● Uses words - like/as - to show similarity.
● Helps us to visualize and make associations.
Examples include:
● We are like two peas in a pod
( are very similar to each other)
● He is as tall as a mountain
● He roared like a lion.
● The officer was as blind as a bat.
● He sings like an angel.
● “Life is like a box of chocolates.”
● “Hang there like a fruit, my soul, Till the tree die!” - Cymbeline, by Shakespeare.
● “Elderly American ladies leaning on their canes listed toward me like towers of
Pisa.” — Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov.

8. Metaphor
Shakespeare
● Equates two separate things or ideas.
● Like simile, metaphor also helps visualize the common qualities.
● Unlike simile, metaphor directly states the comparison.
● ‘Like,’ ‘as’ aren’t used for comparison.
Examples include:
● She’s a shining star.
● Time is money.
● The test was a breeze.
● “All the world’s a stage...” - As you like it, by
● “Busy old fool, unruly sun…” - The Sun Rising, by John Donne
● “The sun in the west was a drop of burning gold that slid near and nearer the sill of the world.” -
Lord of the Flies, by William Golding

9. Oxymoron
● Using two words/ideas that contradict each other.
● Produces a dramatic effect.
● Symbolizes complexity.
Examples include:
● Icy hot.
● Open secret.
● sweet sorrow
● small crowd
● old news
● little giant
● Deafening silence
● The country lost many lives in the friendly fire.
● “A joke is a very serious thing.” - Winston Churchill
● “I must be cruel, only to be kind.” - Hamlet, by Shakespeare

10. Alliteration
● Repetition of the same consonant (usually initial) sound in a series of words.
● Gives a rhythmical sense to the text.
● Commonly used in poetry, songs, speeches.
Examples include:
● Tim took tons of tools to make the toys.
● Peter piper picked a peck of pickled pepper
● Nick needed new books.
● “I have a dream” - speech by Dr. Martin Luther King
● “Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
Much Sense -- the starkest Madness -” - Emily Dickinson

11. irony
● Used to show contrast between the expectations/appearance & reality of a
situation.
● Three types: verbal, dramatic & situational.
Examples include:
● A fire station burns down.
● A pilot with a fear of heights.
● “Water, water everywhere, nor any a drop to drink.” - Rime of the Ancient
Mariner
● “Gentlemen! You can’t fight in here! This is the war room!” - Kubric’s Dr.
Strangelove (1964)
● Otto Lilienthal, creator of the flying glider, died in a flight crash.

12. onomatopoeia
● Naming a thing or an action after the sound it makes.
● Mimics the thing that is being described.
● Has a direct impact on reader’s/listener’s senses.
Examples include:
● The leaves kept rustling.
● They jumped into the pool & made a big splash.
● They kept murmuring & giggling.
● Swish, swoosh, flutter, gasp, slap, thud, neigh, moo, tweet, ribbit, etc.
● “How they clang, and clash, and roar!” (about bells in)- The Bells, by
Edgar Allan Poe

13. personification
/ideas.● Attributes human qualities to non-human things.
Examples include:
● Death lays his icy hand on kings.
● The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.
● “My new car, the 67 Chevy Impala, is a beauty, isn’t she?’
● Anxiety is sitting on his face.
● “Two sun flowers
Move in the Yellow room…”- by William Blake (poem has a dialogue between theflowers)
● April is the cruelest month, breeding.
Lilacs out of the dead land,” - The Waste Land, by TS Eliot.
● “Life will hit you, hard, in the face...” - If I should have a daughter, by Sarah Kay.

14. ANTITHESIS
● Antithesis is a striking opposition of contrast of words or feelings is
made in the same sentence.
Examples include:
● Man proposes God disposes
● To err .is human, to forgive divine.

15. EUPHEMISM
● Euphemism is the replacement of a phrase which implies the same meaning but does
not carry offence with it.
● It means "good speech' about an unpleasant or bad thing.
Examples include:
● he passed away OR kicked the bucket’ Instead of ‘died’
● Between jobs instead of unemployed
● Big-boned instead of fat or overweight

16. HyperboleandUnderstatement
● Hyperbole is a term which uses an exaggeration to add a more dramatic meaning to
the sentence.
Examples include:
My bag weighs a tonne.
I have a million things to do today.
● Understatement is a statement which is made to be less important than what is actually
being conveyed.
Examples include:
I only have two million dollars.
There was a flood in the town, it must have rained a bit in the night.

17. MetonymyandSynecdoche
● Metonymy is change of name. Here a thing is spoken of not by its own name.
Examples include:
The pen is mightier than the sword (Pen means Poet, Sword mean king).
Let me give you a hand.” (Hand means help.)
● Synecdoche is understanding of one thing by means of another. Here a part
stands for a whole or a whole stands for a part.
Examples include:
The word “bread” refers to food or money
The word “boots” usually refers to soldiers.

18. Thank you!!

19. REFERENCES
K. Reddy, 2020. Figures of speech: Education.
2020