This document defines and provides examples of various figures of speech including simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, irony, and others. It examines how each figure of speech makes comparisons between objects, gives human traits to non-human things, exaggerates ideas, or involves contradictions to convey meaning in a vivid, interesting way.

1. FIGURES OF SPEECH
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2. Simile
 Simile is a stated comparison between two
things that are actually unlike but have
something in common.
 A Simile is easy to recognize because it is
introduced by the words
like, as, resemble or similar to.
Example:
1. She is quiet as a mouse.

3. 2. Like a glum cricket
The refrigerator is singing
From Flight by James
Tate
3. Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are!
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky.
4. The morning dew smells like a new
papaya in bloom

4. METAPHOR
 Makes a direct comparison of two unlike
things that have something in common. A
metaphor does not include the words
like, as, resemble, or similar to.
Example:
1. “Even at night time, Mama is sunrise.”
– Evelyn Tooley Hunt
2. Stars are great drops of golden dew.

5. EXTENDED METAPHOR
 Makes a comparison that is carried
throughout a literary selection. The
continued use of the same metaphor
creates a strong image for the reader.
“O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman
compares Abraham Lincoln to a
captain of a ship.

6. PERSONIFICATION
 Isa figure of speech that gives a human
qualities to an object, an animal or an
idea. It enables the reader to see the
ordinary things in a new and interesting
way.
Example:
1. The Sun puts a rainbow scarf about Rains
shoulders when they go out together.

7. 2. “Q is for Quietness
of Sunday Avenues
When silence walks the city
In her pretty velvet shoes.
- Phyllis McGinley
3. The sun was a chariot of fire.

8. APOSTROPHE
 Addresses personified objects as a real
persons, the absent as if they were
present, the dead as if they are alive.
Examples:
1. Ah, Liberty, how many crimes are
committed in thy name.
2. Rizal, see the fair hope of the fatherland.
3. “Farewell my beloved Philippines, the
sorrow of my sorrows.”

9. ALLUSION
 Is a reference in a work of literature to
another work of literature, or to a well
known person, place or event outside
literature
1. Mythological Allusion:
Jonathan is the Adonis of his class
2. Literary Allusion
Political Pied Pipers try everything.

10. 3. Historical Allusion
Some call Marcos a modern day Hitler.
4. Biblical Allusion
I took my power in my hand
And went against the world;
Twas not as much as David had,
But I was twice as bold.

11. HYPERBOLE
 Is a figure of speech that exaggerates an
idea so vividly that the reader has an
instant picture.
Examples:
1. Her back is broader than Mt. Apo
2. I cried a river of tears when he left me.
3. “Is this the face that launched a thousand
ships
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?”
-Christopher Marlowe

12. IRONY
 Is the general name given to literary
techniques that involve differences
between appearance and
reality, expectation and result, meaning
and intention.
 Types of Irony
a. Verbal Irony – words are used to
suggest the opposite of what is meant. In
everyday speech, a verbal irony is easily
recognized because of the speakers tone

13. Example:
Two friends have planned to have a
day of picnicking and hiking. As they step
out of the door, it begins to rain. One
says, “Oh great! I was hoping it would rain
b. Irony of the situation- In this type of
irony, an event occurs that directly
contradicts the expectations of the
characters, the reader or the audience.
Example:
A penniless young couple want to buy
each other special Christmas presents.
The wife has her beautiful long hair cut

14. and buys a chain worthy of her husband’s
prized gold pocket watch. The husband
sells his watch to buy an exquisite tortoise
shell combs for his wife’s beautiful long
hair.
c. Dramatic Irony- Here, there is a
contradiction between what a character
thinks and what the reader or audience
knows to be true.
Example:
“Just as the conspirators gather around
Caesar to assassinate him, he asks, are

15. OXYMORON
 Isthe combination of two mutually
contradictory words in a case where the
contradiction is apparent only, the two
ideas being realized.
Example:
1. James Bond is a well known Secret
Agent.
2. Parting is such a sweet sorrow.

16. PARADOX
 Isseemingly contradictory but true
statement.
Example:
1. More haste, less speed.
2. Attack is the best form of defense.
3. We are our own parents.

17. ALLITERATION
 Is the repetition of a consonant sounds. It
is an important tool for the poets. It gives
musical quality and rhythm to a poem.
1. There once was a witch of Willowby
Wood,
And weird wild witch was she.
– Rowena Bennett

18. ASSONANCE
 Refers to the recurrence in words that are
close together, of the same vowel sound.
1. What a world of merriment their melody
foretells.
2. No bubble, no trouble.
3. Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

19. METONYMY
 Is the substitution of one noun for another
which it suggests. It is based on
association (e.g the author for his
works, the source for the product, the
cause for the effect)
1. We watched Spielberg today. (director for
his work)
2. Malacañang declared suspension of
classes.

20. SYNECDOCHE
A type of metonymy in which a significant
part is used to represent the whole.
1. It’s useless to preach to empty stomachs.
2. Give us this day our daily bread.
3. A sail rose out of the sea.
4. Life is hard when you have eight hungry
mouths to feed.

21. Identify the figures of speech used in the
following sentence.
1. “O liberty, liberty! What crimes are
committed in thy name?
2. A stick-thin old man with white hair was
looking a them.
3. Winter sat tight on, our shoulder blades.
4. Spare the rod and spoil the child.
5. Character is a diamond that scratches
every item.
6. We study Shakespeare today.
7. Ambition, you have been a cruel master.

22. 8. If I were Circe, I would change my
enemies into swine.
9. Bang-Whang-Whang goes the
drum, tootle-te-tootle the fife, oh a day in
the city-square there is no such pleasure
in life.
- Robert Browning
10. Her cheeks are like the petals of a rose.
11. I wandered lonely as a cloud.
12. In the company of the playful sea, the
wind sings and blows all day.
13. How good of you to refuse to help us.