Language Techniques English Flashcards
Metaphor
Describing one thing of another
e.g. a heart of gold
Simile
Using ‘like’ or ‘as’
e.g. light as a feather, brave as a lion
Alliteration
two or more words that start with the same sound are used repeatedly in a phrase or a sentence
e.g. anxious ants, wild wind, tasty tacos
Onomatopoeia
a word of a sound
e.g. meow, moo, crash, slam
Personification
Giving an object, animal or plant a human trait
e.g. The moon smiled
Hyperbole
an exaggerated statement or claim that is not meant to be taken literally
e.g. I told you a million times
Assonance
a repetition of vowel sounds in any part of a word
e.g. Go slow over the road (repetition is the long o sound)
Dialect
form of language spoken in a country or group
e.g. if someone says they are “a hop, skip, and a jump away,” they mean, “I am not far away.”
Oxymoron
Two words that don’t meet
e.g. bitter sweet, awfully good
Repetition
The act of repeating, or doing, saying, or writing something again
Symbolism
The use of words or images to symbolize specific concepts, people, objects, or events
e.g. a character’s long, wild hair might symbolize a period of youth or innocence
Imagery
when a writer appeals to a reader’s senses by using descriptive and figurative language
e.g. hear, sight, taste, feel, touch
Irony
the use of words to express something other than and especially the opposite of the literal meaning
e.g. A person saying, ‘I’m loving the gorgeous weather’ when it is raining means the opposite of what they are saying
Enjambment
a poetic term for the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line of poetry to the next
e.g. I wandered lonely as a cloud / That floats on high o’er vales and hills
Flashbacks
Takes the narrative to a past memory
