We have studied four types of Figurative Language.
Simile: Describing something by saying it’s similar to something else, using the word “like” or “as.”
McMurphy fell 12 stories and hit the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup.
Then, wildly, like animals escaped from their caves, they ran and ran in shouting circles.
That sun. He could feel it on his neck, still, like a hot paw.
Metaphor: Describing something by saying it is something else.
You are a couch potato.
She’s a brick house.
The sun is a flower that blooms for just one hour.
Idiom: An expression that doesn’t mean what it says, and you can’t figure it out—you just have to know.
Somebody spilled the beans.
Suzy’s mom had a cow.
I wanted to go snowboarding, but my brother got cold feet.
Analogy: Describing something by pointing out the parallels between it and something else.
Nolan Ryan is the Brett Favre of baseball: he had a great arm, and was a star player for a long time.
A class is like a sports team: the teacher is the coach, the students are the players, and the classroom is the stadium.
