Sometimes, the examiner will pick a phrase or a sentence in the text and ask you to identify the technique used. Here are some of the figurative language techniques you need to familiarize yourself with.

Simile: A figure of speech which involves a direct comparison between 2 unlike things, usually with the words like or as. Eg. Prince slept like a baby after a long day in school.

Metaphor: A figure of speech which involves a comparison between two relatively unlike things using a form of the verb ‘to be’ (am, is, are, was, were) The comparison does not use the words like or as to introduce the figurative speech. E.g. Life is a rollercoaster.

Alliteration: Repeated consonant sounds occurring at the beginning of words or within words. Eg. Clary closed her cluttered clothes closet.

Personification: A figure of speech which gives the qualities of a person to an animal, an object, or an idea.

HyperboleExaggeration: A statement that represents something as better, bigger, worse than it really is. Eg. That homework will take forever to complete.

Onomatopoeia: The use of words that mimic/ describe sounds. Eg. My teeth chattered as I stood in the snow.

Irony: An outcome of events opposite to what was, or might have been expected. Eg. A fire station catching fire or a police station getting robbed.

Oxymoron:

Juxtaposition:

Euphemism:

Hypothetical questions:

Repetition:

Rhyme:

Assonance:

Consonance: