As Snow White’s mother once said that her daughter be as white as snow, her eyes and hair as black as ebony and her lips as red as blood. From this excerpt from the story by the Brothers Grimm, what comes to your mind when you read this? You may have noticed the mother comparing her child to inanimate things, or to the weather outside. You may also have noticed that the sentence alone uses one word repeated six times over the whole excerpt. If you say the excerpt uses figurative language or figurative words, you are right. This is an example of a Simile. But what is a Simile? Apart from the example above, what can we say is a Simile?
A Simile is a type of figure of speech or a figurative language. A Simile is the comparing kind of figurative language, since it uses the words “as” and “like” when comparing one thing to another. In addition to that, a Simile is often mistaken to be the same as that of a metaphor. However, these two figurative languages are different. A Simile uses the words as and like to compare while a Metaphor does not.
What can you use a Simile with? How do you even know when you are using Simile in your sentences? When you write out your sentences with as or like, you are comparing one thing to the other. For other nice ways to use the figurative language Simile, let’s head over to the ones listed below.
First tip on how to use a Simile. Writing out sentences for an activity or saying it out loud. Of course adding the Simile between too. This is good practice for both oral and written activities for students. A good sentence activity helps create a scene where a student can use their imaginations when writing a sentence using the figurative language Simile. Of course this may also depend on the level of learning of your student, but they may be given the opportunity to write out from simple sentences containing the Simile figurative language to complex sentences.
Second tip for Simile. However this tip basically answers where you can find other uses for it. Basically, in literature you would often see a lot of figurative languages there, especially a Simile. In well loved stories like fables, nursery rhymes and even fairy tales. Literature is rich with figurative languages and what better way to know than to check them out? Your teacher may tell you to read from an excerpt of a story that has a lot of Similes in it. By underlining the sentences with Similes is also another great activity you can try.
Tip number three we got speech and essay. If you plan on wowing everyone with your speech, regardless of what your topic may turn out to be, why don’t you use some Similes? Not only is that going to be helpful, it would also make your speech stand out of the crowd. It would also be helpful for those who may not be able to decipher what you mean. With the help of a Simile in your essays, it is easier for them to compare the information with what you use to compare it with. Of course it does not have to mean literally, hence the term figurative. The same goes for essays. Using Simile in your essays would not only make it sound and look like it’s about to pop out of your paper, but it would make your sentences sound interactive and interesting. In a way, it makes the most mundane of topics look or sound better and more interesting.
Tip number four leads us to conversations. What can conversations do with a figurative language like Simile you ask? Simple, by doing any kind of conversation or any random conversation, and adding a Simile to it, would make the conversation even more let’s just say out of this world. Rather than using words like oh she’s different, she reminds me of the mad hatter. You can take it up a notch, you can say She’s different, she is like the mad hatter. See how it makes the conversation even more fun? Try it out the next time you have a conversation with people you know.
If you think that writing poems means you cannot write or use Simile in them, you actually can. The teacher may instruct you to use as many similes as you can, and as much as possible, be able to underline or to highlight them when you can. If not, your teacher would read an excerpt from a poem and it is your responsibility to look for the similes. Write them down and present them to class. This is not just a fun filled activity for students, it is also teaching them how to use Simile’s or other figurative languages in poems.
A figurative language is a group of words or phrases that you use when you want to compare two or more things together. Figurative languages makes words and phrases pop up. In addition to that, figurative language does not necessarily mean the literal of what has been written. It is a form of fancy words that literary authors use.
There are a lot of types of figurative languages. You may have already heard of them as Simile, Metaphor, Hyperbole, Personification, Irony, Synecdoche, Alliteration, Allusion, Assonance, Idioms, and many more.
A Simile is a type of figurative language. A Simile describes two or more things that can be compared with. You can tell that a sentence has a simile when the sentence begins to describe two or more things using the words as or like.
Simile and Metaphor are just two of the different types of figurative language. A Simile as mentioned describes two or more things using the linking words as or like. This is your key to know that you are dealing with a Simile. A Metaphor is like a Simile, it uses to describe things as well. However, unlike the Simile, a Metaphor does not need the words as or like to link it to something it is describing about. It immediately describes two or more objects at the same time.
There are a lot of ways to use figurative languages as they are usually found in literary pieces. If you are wondering as to how to use simile in other ways, you may use it in your writing. From blogs, articles in newspapers, magazines, stories and even in your essays. There is literally no limit in using Simile’s and other figurative languages, as long as you understand what they are and how to use them.
That is the end of our discussion on the figurative language Simile. There are of course a lot of figurative languages but Simile is the simplest and easiest figurative language to discuss as it simply describes objects together with special keywords. Discussing this figurative language to students should highly be the first thing to do, since this figurative language is easy enough to understand and it’s also easy enough for students to get the whole figurative language. In addition to that, you can also encourage them with their speech and essay writing by using Similes.