Figurative Language

What is the Importance of Figurative Language?

As you know, using accurate details in your writing is important. Such details help to convey exact images to the reader. When you describe how things actually look, sound, or feel, you are using literal language. With literal language, you say precisely what you mean.

Sometimes, however, you may wish to describe images in a more imaginative way. You then use figurative language. Figurative language is not meant to be interpreted in a literal sense.

Literal: Melanie had new ideas.

Figurative: Melanie broke ground with her new ideas.

Of course, Melanie did not actually break the ground. With figurative language, you say things in new ways.

You can also use figurative language to make comparisons. Similes, metaphors, and personification are types of figurative language that compare. A simile compares by using the words like or as.

Ex. The bobcat was like a raging storm.

A metaphor compares by saying that something is something else.

Ex: The snow is a blanket on the rooftops.

In personification, something nonhuman is given human qualities.

Ex: The dancing snowflakes leaped to Earth.

A. Tell whether each sentence is an example of simile, metaphor, or personification.

1. The rain slapped the concrete sidewalks. _______________________________________________________________________________

2. The horse leaped like a graceful ballerina. _______________________________________________________________________________

3. The moon was a round bouncing ball. _______________________________________________________________________________

B. Write each sentence, underlining the example of figurative language in the sentence. Write whether it is an example of simile, metaphor, or personification.

4. The angry lion ran like a bolt of lightning. ______________________________________________________________________________

5. A lazy river crawled through the lush valley. ______________________________________________________________________________

6. The mountain groaned in pain during the earthquake. ______________________________________________________________________________

7. Like an agile mountain goat, the climber scaled the slope. ______________________________________________________________________________

8. He is a tiger in his devotion to endangered species. ______________________________________________________________________________

C. Write a sentence to describe each subject. Use figurative language in your descriptions.

9. a trainer holding out a fish for a porpoise ______________________________________________________________________________

10. a forest ranger aiding an injured deer ______________________________________________________________________________

11. a fisher waiting for a bite on his line ______________________________________________________________________________

12. a calm lake after vacationers have left ______________________________________________________________________________

13. a forest after a heavy snowfall ______________________________________________________________________________

D. The following sentences are written in literal language. Rewrite each sentence, using figurative language.

14. The plant grew very tall. _______________________________________________________________________________

15. A friend came over to my house. _______________________________________________________________________________

16. There was lightning in the sky. _______________________________________________________________________________

17. The wind blew the leaves on the trees. _______________________________________________________________________________

18. She walked to the park. _______________________________________________________________________________

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