Page 87 - (DK) Help Your Kids with Language Arts
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                                     IDIOM S,  ANAL OGIE S,  AND FIGURE S  OF  SPEE CH


        Figures of speech
        Figures of speech are useful language tools that allow a writer or speaker to
        persuade, emphasize, impress, or create a mental image. Words and phrases   • Try to invent new, interesting
        are used out of their literal contexts to create different, heightened effects.   metaphors when writing rather than
        When a person claims to be “starving,” for example, that person is unlikely    copying existing ones.
        to be dying of hunger; rather, he or she is simply very hungry.

          Alliteration                     Simile                           Metaphor
          The same letter or sound is used   The words like or as are used   One thing is described as being
          at the start of multiple words    to compare two things.          a different thing, resulting in a
          for effect.                                                        comparison between the two.

             Catherine carefully            She is as plump as a
                                                                                 Her cheeks are
           combined cold coffee             peach, but she moves              sun-blushed apples.
            cake and kiwi fruit.               like a ballerina.


          Euphemism                        Pun                              Hyperbole
          A mild word or phrase is         Also known as word play, the     A statement is
          substituted for a word or phrase   multiple meanings of a word    grossly exaggerated.
          that might cause offense.         are used to create humor.

               She has ample                   She gave me her
             proportions (she is              measurements as               She said she could eat
                                                                                  a rhinoceros.
                overweight).                    a round figure.


          Personification                   Oxymoron                         Onomatopoeia
          An object or animal is given     Two terms are used together that   A word is used that mimics the
          human qualities.                 contradict each other.           sound of what it stands for.



              The food called                   The pie looked                She burped noisily.
                    to her.                     terribly tasty.



          Anaphora                         Irony                            Understatement
          A word or phrase is repeated at   One thing is said but the opposite   Something is made out to be
          the start of successive clauses    thing is meant, usually for humor   smaller or less important than
          for emphasis.                    or emphasis.                     it really is.

          She ate the pie; she ate         I admired her charming          She said she had enjoyed
           the cake; she ate the              table manners (her                her light lunch.
                  kiwi fruit.                manners were poor).
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