Figures of speech
1.Alliteration
The repetition of an initial consonant sound.
e.g.: Sara’s seven sisters sleep soundly in the sand.
2. Antithesis
The using of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases.
e.g.: One small step for a man, one giant leap for all mankind
3. Euphuism
The substitution of an inoffensive term for an offensive one.
e.g.: You are well fed. (You are fat)
We have to let you go (You are fired.)
4. Hyperbole
The use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.
e.g.: Your dog is so ugly, we have to pay the fleas to live on it.
5. Irony
The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning.
e.g.: Having a fight with your best friend before your birthday and saying: “Great, that’s just what I need.”
6. Metaphor
An implied comparison between two unlike things that actually have sth important in common.
e.g.: The sofa is a fertile soil for couch potato.
7. Simile
A stated comparison (usually formed with “like” or “as”) between two fundamentally dissimilar things that have qualities in common.
e.g.: She looks like a flower but stings like a bee.
8. metonymy
A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted for another with which it is closely related. (describing sth indirectly by referring to things around it)
e.g.: He writes a fine hand. (he has good hand writing.)
9. Synecdoche
A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing from which it is made (as steel for sword ).
e.g.: ABCs (alphabet)
e.g.: England won the World Cup in 1966.
(Football team of England)
10. Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions
they refer to.
e.g.: The clatter of utensils (器皿).
11. Personification
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object is endowed with human qualities or abilities.
e.g.: The carved pumpkin smiled at me.
12. Pun
The play on words, sometimes on different sense of the same word, and sometimes on the similar sense or sound of different words.
e.g.: Why did the bee go to doctors?
Because he had hives. (hive)
Why are males good at math?
Because they like figures.
13. Syllepsis 一笔双叙
The figure of speech refers to the use of only one word to describe two actions or events.
e.g.: She opened the door and her heart to the orphan.
He took his hat and his leave
He took my advice and my wallet.
13. Oxymoron 矛盾修饰法
A figure of speech that contains words with opposite meanings.
e.g.:a bitter sweet experience
