He shines like a star when he sees her. From the short sentence, you will think how can a person shine? What you may have heard might have been a simple metaphor. Let us take a look at what metaphors are.
Metaphors are a figurative language that is a comparison between two things that are very much unlike each other that some of them are even very contrasting to each other. They could also be a word or prepositional phrase ordinarily and primarily used for one thing applied to another.
Did you know you can use metaphors with just about any literary genre? From stories, to haikus, to poems, to short stories, and even novels. You can even encounter metaphors in conversations. All you need to know is how to spot a metaphor and where can you find them.
Teach children kid friendly metaphors for them to understand the topic. Giving children examples of metaphors that can be used like “The moon is a gray ball.” “The boy sings like a bird.” will be easier for them to grasp. Use simple metaphor examples.
Making simple sentences with metaphors is easy. Since all you need to do is to add in two objects to compare and add the word like in the sentence. Writing metaphoric sentences can be done by anyone and can also be a great help for students learning about metaphors.
Adding metaphors to your essays and speeches can also make them sound better and even for readers or listeners to understand what you are going to say or what you are comparing something too. Metaphors used as a way to play with words can also give new meaning to writing.
Metaphors are very well common in haikus, poems, fairy tales, short stories and even novels. Writers love to use metaphors as a means to play with their words and to compare one object to another with the use of this figurative analogy.
There are a lot of example sentences for metaphors, and here are some of them: “The children were roses grown in concrete gardens, beautiful and forlorn.” “Kisses are the flowers of love in bloom.” “His cotton candy words did not appeal to her taste.” “Kathy arrived at the grocery store with an army of children.” “Her eyes were fireflies.” “I was lost in a sea of nameless faces.” “John’s answer to the problem was just a band-aid, not a solution.”
A lot of people often mistake both figurative languages as the same. However, simile and metaphor are two different types of figures of speech. You can tell if the sentence contains a simile when the sentence has the words as or like to compare one thing to the other. While a metaphor does not need to use the words as or like to compare. It directly compares two things in the sentence.
There are times that you may need to explain what the example sentence with a metaphor is in. Because in some cases, even a metaphor may not be able to make any sense. If this is the case, you will need to either explain it directly or use another comparison to make the metaphor seem clearer. This usually happens when you are teaching the figurative language to children who are new to metaphors or who may not see the comparison being stated in the sentence.
A metaphor is a type of figurative language. A metaphor compares two different things together and makes it that they would sound and look the same. Some metaphoric sentences may not sound like they make any sense or may sound odd when you compare them. But that is the beauty of the use of metaphors.
In the English language, using different types of figurative analogy or figurative languages to make your sentences, stories or any genre sound good is quite normal. Writers use metaphors to compare two different things and make it sound the same. The beauty of playing with words through metaphors and similes can sometimes be confusing, especially when these two are almost alike. These two do compare two things together to sound the same. The only difference is that in a metaphor, you will be able to see the comparison without the use of “as” or “like” to point it out. To teach metaphors to children or kids, simply use simple analogies.
