April showers bring May flowers, gloomy days, as well as flooding. Welcome to a miserable, wet April day, but for me it won’t be a wasted day since I can write rain or shine!
While today’s letter could stand for flooding, to me the letter F is for figurative language. Figurative language is the practice of using words in a unique way to explain yourself and create an image in the mind of the reader without using words in their literal meaning. It gives an unusual flourish to written or spoken language and can be a wonderful way to explain something complicated.
There eight types of figurative language I use regularly are: personification, onomatopoeia, hyperbole, alliteration, simile, metaphor, idioms, and the adage I mentioned on the first day of this year’s challenge.
In my books and in my own daily speech, I use these all the time, and you’ll be surprised to learn that you do, too. Let’s look at each of them quickly.
Personification: Essentially, personification is the art of giving human qualities to something that isn’t human. An example could be: that piece of cheesecake is calling my name, or did you hear that wind howl?
Onomatopoeia is the act of using words that mimic real sounds, like don’t bang the door, or stop shushing me.
Hyperbole is exaggeration. For example, that dress costs a fortune.
Alliteration requires you to use two or more of the same letter or sound in a row, as in Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. It’s often used in marketing, such as Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Coca-Cola, Krispy Kreme, Coffee Crisp, and in literature with character names like Peter Pan, or Bilbo Baggins–you get the idea.
Simile is one of the most frequently used examples of figurative language. It’s a comparison using like or as. Examples include he eats like a pig, she’s as skinny as a rail, or he’s as tough as nails.
Metaphors are like similes in that they compare two unlike objects but do so without the use of like or as. Examples include, she’s a bear without her coffee, he’s lost so much weight that he’s a shadow of himself, or he’s a bull in a china shop.
Lastly, we have idioms, which are words or sentences not intended to be taken literally. Examples include it’s raining cats and dogs–or men as the song says, it’s a piece of cake, or if the shoe fits.
Finally, we can recall that an adage isa proverb or statement generally proving to be true, after all, the early bird really does get the worm.
Check out the rest of today’s posts. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nuoAOJ-BUAXE1Yl2yIArhUHInj902PHVX6_gL4oKiSo/edit#gid=1195767304
Living the Dream 