Your house is big. That giraffe is tall. This lesson is boring.
Describing things in English can be boring unless you know different types of expressions and figures of speech to make your descriptions more personal and colorful. Similes, Metaphors, and Personification more colorful ways to describe things.
Simile is used to describe something by comparing it to something else by using like or as - Thats easy as pie. - Youre growing like a weed. - Shes like an angel. Shes so kind. - -
Metaphor is used to describe something by directly comparing it to something else. (A is B) - Shes an angel. - All the world is a stage - - -
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Personification is used to describe something by giving human characteristics or actions to ideas, animals, or inanimate objects. - My computer hates me. - My stomach has a mind of its own. - Time stood still when I dropped my mothers vase! - -
Quiz Time Instructions
Tell me which figure of speech is in the following sentence, and what it means.
Example sentence: Shes a fish when she gets in the water.
Example answer: Shes a fish when she gets in the water is a metaphor. It means that shes a good swimmer.
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Quiz Time Sentences
Hes like an ox.
My foot is asleep.
Youre the apple of my eye.
Youre as fast as a cheetah.
Im as blind as a bat without my glasses.
This is cake.
The flowers were so happy when I watered them.
Write and say your own simile, metaphor, and personification of something!
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Quiz Time Answers
Hes like an ox.
Simile- It uses like. It means hes very strong.
My foot is asleep.
Personification- This is the numb sensation that you feel in your foot when you cross your legs for too long, or you sit on your foot for too long. (Your leg, arm, hand can be asleep as well.)
Youre the apple of my eye.
Metaphor- Somebody isnt literally an apple, and theres no apple in anybodys eye. There is a metaphorical apple in a metaphorical eye. It means a child is very special to his/her parents. (I wouldnt call this personification because youre not giving the apple a human characteristic. Youre directly comparing an apple to a person)
Youre as fast as a cheetah.
Simile- It uses as. It means youre very fast.
Im as blind as a bat without my glasses.
Simile- It uses as. It means you cant see.
This is cake.
Metaphor- If you call something cake, it means that its very easy. If a test, game, task, etc. is very easy, you can say its cake.
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The flowers were so happy when I watered them
Personification- Happy is a human emotion that you can project onto the flower to describe the situation.
Write your own simile, metaphor, and personification of something.