A brief discussion on the two figures of speech: alliteration and assonance.

1. Alliteration & Assonance

2. Alliteration

3. What is alliteration?
❖ derived from Latin’s “Latira”, which means
“letters of alphabet”.
❖ a literary stylistic device, which occurs when a
series of words in a row (or close together) have
the same first consonant sound

4. Alliteration
Examples:
❖ “…and they were making all kinds of conjectures
concerning the captive’s future.”
❖ “…the lurid letters of Lucy Lewis are luscious,
lucid and libidinous.”
❖ “I had seen her at the Kozy Kampus Korner eating
the specialty of the house…”

5. Alliteration
Examples:
❖ Marilyn Monroe
❖ Krispy Kreme
❖ Donald Duck
❖ Stephen Strange
❖ Bench & Bath
❖ Great Gatsby

6. Alliteration
Watch out!
❖ Some words/names may have the same first
consonant, however this does not automatically
make it an alliteration.
❖ Remember that alliteration is based on SOUND,
not LETTER

7. Alliteration
examples:
❖ cheerful celebration
↳the sounds do not match (ch and se)
❖ the impossible island…
↳e and ay
❖ Jose and Jonathan
↳ho and jo

8. Alliteration
These are considered:
❖ Cassandra Quixote
↳both start with “k” sound
❖ Egyptian inventors of the early eras
↳both start with “e” sound
❖ “Cool was I and logical. Keen, calculating…”

9. Assonance

10. What is assonance?
❖ It is the repetition of vowel sounds in nearby
words.
❖The words start with different consonant sounds,
unlike alliteration that involves repetition of the
same consonant sounds.

11. Assonance
Examples:
❖ “…perspicacious, acute and astute — I was all
of these.”
❖ “Hear the mellow wedding bells.”
❖ “I must confess that in my quest I felt depressed
and restless.”

12. Assonance
Examples:
❖ “The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.”
❖ “The light of the fire is a sight.”
❖ “A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze…”

13. Assonance
Watch out!
❖ Just like with alliteration, some words/names
may have the same vowels, however this does not
automatically make it an assonance.
❖ Remember that assonance is also based on SOUND,
not LETTER only.

14. Assonance
examples:
❖ “…Bowed head and lowered eyes?”
↳bowed-aw, lowered-ow
❖ “Though I travelled through life with optimism…”
↳though-ow, through-oo