How to Identify Figures of Speech

Figures of speech are the elements in the written text of any language that mean something else in a given context rather than giving their literal meaning. These are important to any text, especially the literary and fictional text, to make the reader understand a point with clarity and to convey a deeper sense indirectly with the usage of a few words than that would have to be used if the direct idea had to be stated. The connotative meanings of the figures of speech are widely known to the audience and sometimes, even if it is not widely known, the reader easily understands them taking the meaning from the context. There are a lot of figurative elements in the English language that are used for different purposes. Some of these are as follows:

Here are some of the figures of speech that are commonly used in text and conversations. The explanations of these figures of speech will help you in identifying them easily.

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that is widely used to compare two things and to show a similarity between two very distinct phenomena based on a particular aspect. A simile uses the words like as, just like, similar to, like, etc. to show a comparison between the ideas under discussion. An example of a simile used in a sentence can be “He is as brave as a lion.”

The comparison is usually done between two entities that are very unlike each other. For example,

She was acting like a frog.
He was running like a wolf.
She is as brave as a lioness.
The child is behaving like a clown.

Metaphor

A metaphor performs the same function as that performed by a simile in the statements. The only difference is that a metaphor used regards one thing as some other thing based on some aspect of its quality that the other thing is famous for. Moreover, there is no use of comparative terms like as, just like, etc. in a statement with metaphor. An example of metaphor's use in a sentence can be “He is a lion.”

A metaphor is that figure of speech that is used to make a direct comparison between two different entities. The metaphor can be used when you want to put immense focus on a trait of a person that is very much alike to something. For example,

The child is a clown.
She was a frog.
He was a wolf.
She is a lioness.

Irony

The irony is an interesting figure of speech. It is used when you want to create a mocking effect in the text. Irony occurs when there is a conflict or difference between what is being said and the actual meaning. For example,

Mother said "how wonderful", when I told her I had to work on Sundays.
The unsinkable Titanic sank on its first voyage.

Personification

Personification is a figure of speech that gives human-like qualities and emotions to a non-living thing to increase its importance and stress on the ideas associated with it in a statement.

Personification is that figure of speech that is used to give the traits of a human being to non-human entities. This figure of speech is used in the literature mostly to give the details of something. For example,

The tea branches danced with the breeze.
The storm ate up the entire town.

Oxymoron

The oxymoron is the figure of speech that occurs when two contradicting words combine. For example,

Sweet sorrow
Peace force