English Devices

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
E.g. Suddenly, tragedy travelled through our trivial life

Question 2

Allusion

Answer 2

Short reference to a place, story, or event
E.g. You’re acting like such a Scrooge

Question 3

Amplification

Answer 3

Repeating a word or expression whilst adding more detail to it.

Question 4

Emotive language

Answer 4

Words or phrases that are used to illicit an emotional response from the reader/audience

E.g. Threats became a reality

Question 5

Direct Address

Answer 5

Communicating to the reader/audience in a direct fashion, using the second pronoun you

Question 6

Comparatives

Answer 6

An adjective or adverb that shows something has more quality than the other.
E.g. faster, stronger

Question 7

Ethos

Answer 7

Appealing to the reader/audience relying on trustworthiness and credibility
E.g. Most professional dentists recommended…

Question 8

Antithesis

Answer 8

Contrasting relationship between two ideas.
E.g. I was the right fish in the wrong pond.
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

Question 9

Anaphora

Answer 9

Repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.

Question 10

Anecdote

Answer 10

A short (usually personal) account of an event.

Question 11

Blank verse

Answer 11

Unrhymed verse with carefully placed stressed and unstressed syllables (unrhymed iambic pentameter)

(Add example)

Question 12

Comic relief

Answer 12

Humorous content in a dramatic literary work intended to offset more serious episodes.

E.g. the porter in Act 2 Scene 3

Question 13

Connotation

Answer 13

An idea or feeling linked to the literal meaning of a word - what it implies or suggests in addition to its literal meaning

Question 14

Dialogue

Answer 14

A conversation between 2 or more characters

Question 15

Doggerel

Answer 15

Bad verse - rough and clumsy attempt at speaking in verse

e.g. Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth

Question 16

Dramatic irony

Answer 16

When the audience knows something about a character or plot, that the character on stage is unaware of

Question 17

Foreshadowing

Answer 17

To suggest that something unpleasant will happen later on in the text

Question 18

Soliloquy

Answer 18

A long speech given by a character, usually on stage, as if they are thinking aloud

Question 19

Tragedy

Answer 19

A play with an unhappy ending, usually involving the downfall of the main character

Question 20

Tragic flaw/ hamartia

Answer 20

A defect in a character’s personality that causes the downfall of a character (also known as a fatal flaw)

Question 21

Prose

Answer 21

Writing that follows the style of normal speech, no rythmic metre

Question 22

Stichomythia

Answer 22

The use of short, quick alternate lines in dialogue between 2 characters

Question 23

Irony

Answer 23

Directly contradicting the truth

Question 24

Symbol

Answer 24

Something that represents something else