English Devices

Question 1

Alliteration

Answer 1

the first letter of a word is repeated in words that follow; the cold, crisp, crust of clean, clear ice.

Question 2

Assonance

Answer 2

the same vowel sound is repeated but the consonants are different; he passed her a sharp, dark glance, shot a cool, foolish look across the room.

Question 3

Colloquial

Answer 3

language that is used in speech with an informal meaning; ‘chill’, ‘out of this world’, ‘take a rain check’.

Question 4

Dialect

Answer 4

the version of language spoken by particular people in a particular area, such as Scots.

Question 5

Dialogue

Answer 5

conversation between two people

Question 6

Enjambment

Answer 6

a device used in poetry where a sentence continues beyond the end of the line or verse. This technique is often used to maintain a sense of continuation from one stanza to another.

Question 7

Hyperbole

Answer 7

exaggerating something for literary purposes which is not meant to be taken literally; we gorged on the banquet of beans on toast.

Question 8

Imagery

Answer 8

similes, metaphors and personification; they all compare something ‘real’ with something ‘imagined’.

Question 9

Metaphor

Answer 9

a word or phrase used to imply figurative, not literal or ‘actual’, resemblance; he flew into the room.

Question 10

Monologue

Answer 10

an uninterrupted monologue can show a character’s importance or state of mind. Monologue can be in speech form, delivered in front of other characters and having great thematic importance, or as a soliloquy where we see the character laying bare their soul and thinking aloud.

Question 11

Onomatopoeia

Answer 11

a word that sounds like the noise it is describing: ‘splash’, ‘bang’, ‘pop’, ‘hiss’.

Question 12

Oxymoron

Answer 12

Where two words normally not associated are brought together: ‘cold heat’ ‘bitter sweet’.

Question 13

Personification

Answer 13

attributing a human quality to a thing or idea: the moon calls me to her darkened world.

Question 14

Repetition

Answer 14

the repetition of a word or phrase to achieve a particular effect.

Question 15

Rhyme

Answer 15

the way that words sound the same at the end of lines in poetry. Poems often have a fixed rhyme-scheme (for example, sonnets have 14 lines with fixed rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). Try to comment as to what contribution the rhyme-scheme is making to the text as a whole. Why do you think the poet has chosen it? Does it add control or imitate the ideas in the poem?

Question 16

Simile

Answer 16

a phrase which establishes similarity between two things to emphasise the point being made. This usually involves the words ‘like’ or ‘as’; ‘he is as quick as an arrow in flight’, ‘as white as snow’, ‘like a burning star’.

Question 17

Verb

Answer 17

a word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the main part of the predicate of a sentence, such as hear, become, happen.

Question 18

Adverb

Answer 18

a word or phrase that modifies the meaning of an adjective, verb, or other adverb, expressing manner, place, time, or degree (e.g. gently, here, now, very ). Some adverbs, for example sentence adverbs, can also be used to modify whole sentences.

Question 19

Adjective

Answer 19

a word naming an attribute of a noun, such as sweet, red, or technical.