Figures of

Speech

In all walks of life, everything can be

expressed literally and figuratively.
What is the difference between…

Literal
and

Figurative
language?
Literal means…
• The actual, dictionary meaning of a
word; language that means what it
appears to mean

• Conforming to the most obvious

meaning of a word, phrase,
sentence, or story
In other words…

–It means exactly what it

says! Word for word.
Example One: The U.S. is a large
country. What does it mean? Exactly what it
says!
Example Two: The weather is beautiful
today. What does it mean? Exactly what it says!
In other words…

–Figure it out!
There’s a deeper
meaning hidden
in the words.
Example: Fragrance always
stays in the hand that gives
the rose. -Hada Bejar
• Does it mean you have a
smelly hand?
• What does it mean?
A kiss is a lovely trick
designed by nature to
stop speech when words
become superfluous.

Ingrid Bergman
Introduction Authors often uses figures of speech in both
Figures of literature and poetry to enhance their
Speech writing.

Figures of speech present ordinary things in

new or unusual way.

They communicate ideas that go beyond the

words, usual literal meanings

These are language devices intended to bring

to the reader or the listener fresh reactions to
a scene or an object

Using figures of speech in language is like

sprinkling condiments over your bland food
so that it tastes better
By the end of this session, you
should be able to:

Recognize some of
the figures of speech

Identify figures of
speech in poems
Figures of Resemblance

Simile

Metaphor

Personification

Apostrophe
Simile Comparing two unlike
things using like or as.

We bear her along like a pearl on a string.

She sways like a pearl.

She hangs like a star.

His temper was as

explosive as a
volcano.
– Friends are like
parachutes. If they aren’t
there the first time you
need them, chances are,
you won’t need them
again.
-James A. Lovell Jr.
Metaphor Comparison between two unlike
things that have something
important in common

Life is one big roller coaster ride.

The boy is a fish in the water.

He is my knight in shining armor.

– A good laugh is sunshine in
a house.
-Thackeray
 Simile Metaphor
In the battle,
he fought He was a lion in
bravely like a the battle.
lion.
She’s a busy
She was as bee flitting
busy as a bee around the
handling office handling
several tasks at several tasks.
once.
That boy is a
That boy is as pig.
messy as a pig.
Personification
Representing an inanimate object
or an abstract idea as a person and
endowing it with human traits.

The sun stretched his golden

arms and greeted everyone
with his kind smile.

The trees were fluttering

and dancing in the breeze
Apostrophe The addressing of a usually
absent person or usually
personified thing

“O Liberty, what things are done in thy

name.”

“Come, you spirits that tend on mortal

thoughts.”
-- Macbeth

“Come, let
me clutch
thee. I
have thee
not and
• “O western wind, when wilt thou
blow that the small rain down can
rain?”
• “Blue Moon, you saw me
standing alone,Without a dream
in my heart,Without a love on my
own.”
• “Death be not proud, though
some have called thee Mighty and
dreadfull, for, thou art not so,For,
those, whom thou think’st, thou
dost overthrow,Die not, poore
death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
Figures of Sound Effects

Onomatopoeia

Alliteration

Assonance
Onomatopoeia Is a word that sounds like its meaning. It
can also be described as the use of the
word which imitates a sound such as
screech, whirr, sizzle, crunch, bang, zap,
roar, growl, click, snap, crackle and pop.

A snap of a finger.

The camera clicks

smoothly.

The wild bang of

a rockstar.
• “Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff,
puff. Ding-dong, ding-dong. The
little train rumbled over the
tracks.”
• “Brrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinng! An
alarm clock clanged in the dark
and silent room.”
• “I’m getting married in the
morning!
Ding dong! the bells are gonna
chime.”
Alliteration Is the repetition of beginning consonant
sounds and frequent recurrence of the
same initial letter or sound. It is derived
from Latin’s “Latira” meaning “letters of
alphabet”

Don’t drink and drive

If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers….

But a bit of better butter will make my batter

better.

Six silly swans went swimming in the sea.

Coca Cola, Mickey Mouse, Dunkin Donut, KitKat,

Spongebob Squarepants
•She sells seashells.
• Walter wondered
where Winnie was.
•Blue baby bonnets
• Nick needed new
notebooks.
•Fred fried frogs.
Assonance
The use of words that have the same very
similar vowel sound near other one.
• She seems to beam
rays of sunshine
with her eyes of
green.
• I wish there was a
way to make her
state similar feelings
to those of my soul.
Figures of
Emphasis

Hyperbole

Anaphora
Hyperbole
It is a major exaggeration or
overstatement. Authors use this figures of
speech to emphasize a point or a humor

I nearly died laughing.

You could have knocked me over with a

feather.

I’ve told you a million times.

My backpack weighs a ton.

 • Repetition of the same word or phrase
Anaphora at the beginning of successive clauses
or verses.
• We shall go on to the end. We shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall
depend our island.

• I came, I saw, I conquered - Julius

Caesar
• Mad world! Mad kings! Mad
composition! - King John II, William
Shakespeare
• It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness -
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Figures of Parallelism and/or
Contrast
Irony

Antithesis

Chiasmus

Paradox

Oxymoron

Euphemism
 A situation that is strange or funny
Irony because things happen in a way
that seems to be the opposite of
what you expected
Water, water everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink
Water, water everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
--Rime of the Ancient
Mariner by Coleridge
Examples!
• “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here!
This is the War Room.”
• “How nice!” she said when I told her I
had to work all weekend.
• I lost my wallet. This is my lucky day.
Antithesis Literal meaning is opposite. A rhetorical
device in which two opposite ideas are
put together in a sentence to achieve a
contrasting effect.

This one is a small step for a man, one

giant leap for mankind.

Better to reign in hell, than serve in

Heaven
--monologue of Satan in Paradise Lost of
John Milton

It was the best of times. It was the worst of

times.
-- A Tale of Two Cities of Charles Dickens
Chiasmus A verbal pattern in which the
second half of an expression is
balanced against the first but with
the parts reversed.

• “Nice to see you, to see you, nice!”

• “You forget what you want to remember,
and you remember what you want to
forget.”
• “In the end, the true test is not the
speeches a president delivers; it’s whether
the president delivers on the speeches.”
• One must eat to live, not to live to eat.
• “Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool
you.”
Paradox • A statement that appears to
contradict itself.

• "War is peace."
• "Freedom is slavery."
• "Ignorance is strength.“
• "Some day you will be old
enough to start reading fairy
tales again.“
• The child is the father of
man.
Oxymoron • A figure of speech in which
incongruous or contradictory
terms appear side by side.
• “The best cure for insomnia is to get a
lot of sleep.”
• “A yawn may be defined as a
silent yell.”

•"act naturally," "original copy,“

"found missing," "alone together,"
"peace force," "definite possibility,"
"terribly pleased," "ill health,"
"turn up missing," "jumbo shrimp,"
"alone together," “pretty ugly”
Euphemism • The substitution of an inoffensive term
for one considered offensively explicit.
It is a mild, indirect, or vague term
substituting for a harsh, blunt, or
offensive term.

• 'A little thin on top' instead of 'going

bald'
• 'Homeless' instead of 'bum'
• 'Letting him go' instead of 'firing
him'
• 'Passed away' instead of 'died‘
• Get rid of him instead of ‘kill him’
• 'Economical with the truth' instead of
'liar'
Figures of Association

Metonymy

Synecdoche
 • A figure of speech
Metonymy that replaces words with
related or associated words.

• The dagger of the United

States sliced Saddam
Hussein’s army to pieces.

• I pledge my service to the

crown.
Fragrance always
stays in the hand that
gives the rose. -Hada Bejar

We study
Shakespeare
in our English
class.
Synecdoche • A figure of speech in which a part is used to
represent the whole (ABCs for alphabet) or the
whole for a part (“England won the World Cup
in 1966″).

• Wheels - a car
• The police - one
policeman
• Plastic - friends
• Coke - any cola
drink
• Army - a soldier
• Give us this day our daily
bread (Taken from the Bible,
bread is only part of food.)

• I bought myself a new set of

wheel for my travel (Set of
wheel is only part of a vehicle)