Figurative Language
📋 What it is
Figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification) says one thing to mean another, painting a picture.
🗣️ Coach says
Sometimes writers don’t mean things literally. “Time flew” doesn’t mean time has wings — it’s figurative. Similes use like/as, metaphors say something IS another thing, personification gives objects human traits.
🧠 Memory hook
Simile = like/as. Metaphor = IS. Personification = objects act human.
😂 Giggle
Why did the metaphor refuse to explain itself?
Because it said, "I'm not literal — you have to figure me out!"
😲 Whoa!
Your brain lights up more for a vivid metaphor (“a blanket of snow”) than for the plain version (“a lot of snow”) — figurative language literally makes writing more memorable.
✅ Quick check: “The stars danced in the sky.” Which figurative type is this?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Personification — stars can’t really dance; giving them a human action makes the image vivid.
Attributing human actions to non-human things is personification.
🪄 Trick question: Is “She is as tall as her brother” a simile?
Careful — think it through, then reveal.
No — it’s a literal comparison of real heights; a simile compares UNLIKE things for effect (“as tall as a tree”).
Similes use like/as to compare unlike things imaginatively, not to state literal facts.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Turn a plain sentence (“the wind was strong”) into a simile, then a metaphor. Notice which paints a clearer picture.