Figurative Language Search

Do you know your metaphors from your similes, or your personification from your idiom? Can
you spot which figurative language is featured in each of these cards?
Cut up the four sheets of cards and mix them around. Read each one and look for examples of
figurative language. Sort them into these seven types:

• Metaphor [when one thing is described as another, e.g. The sun is a giant orange in the sky.]
• Alliteration [when several words in a phrase or sentence start with the same sound, e.g. Super
Simon swims like a salmon.]
• Simile [comparing one thing with another, using as/like, e.g. My dog's fur is like
a big fluffy cotton wool ball.]
• Personification [giving non-human things features/actions only humans could have, e.g. The
haunted house watched me with its broken windows.]
• Onomatopoeia [words which sound like the thing they represent, e.g. crash, bang, woof, snap]
• Idiom [a common expression which means something different to its individual words, e.g. The
best students reach for the stars. ]
• Hyperbole [an extreme/impossible idea used to gain maximum effect, e.g. No you can't go to the
toilet; you've been twenty times this lesson already!]
 1. You've already 2. Peter Piper picRed a 3. Bethany could sleep 4. My bag weighs a
told me that story a pecR of picRled pepper. through an tonne.
million times. earthquaRe.

8. As the fighter jet

6. The floorboards 7. The fabric cascaded
5. The spicy food went supersonic, a
moaned as I tiptoed out of the cupboard in
danced around my deep boom was heard
taste buds.
across the room. a rainbow of colours.
across the sRy.

10. The champion's

9. Don't you feel well? 11. Good friends will 12. The model's
tennis racRet
You're as white as a always sticR up for beautiful teeth were
whooshed as it sliced
sheet. each other. pearls in his smile.
through the air.
 14. The pool was so
13. Those new Crispy cold I was surprised 15. Wasps and flies
16. You are the
Crunch Cream that there weren't any buzzed around our
. . . sunshine of my life.
biscuit bars sound pengutns swtmmtng picnic in the garden.
delicious! in it!

17. Tell me this joke 18. I rode down the 19. The electric car 20. Ten calculations!?
then - I'm all ears. Red River on a raft. hummed to itself at the That will take days!
traffic lights.

21. The bouncing baby 22. The steam train 23. Tim, Sam and Ali 24. The wind sighed
babbled as he drank hissed as it waited in are great friends; through the field of
his bottle. the station. they're like the three wheat.
Musketeers.
25. My brother and I
have to share the 27. It was his birthday 28. We gathered the
26. Finally, my temper
new games console and Dean felt as happy green leaves in the
exploded.
because it cost an as a dog with two garden.
arm and a leg. tails.

32. We haven't got any

29. Doves cooed softly 30.Mrs.White's maths
31.
in the trees as evening test was a piece of
fell. cake.
plans for Saturday
Tyler's room is a
we're just going to play
tip.
it b y ear.

33. The reception

34. Assembly usually 35. I passed the times 36. I smacked my head
children played in the
drags on for hours. tables test by the skin on the open door.
sandpit like a litter of
of my teeth.
pupptes.
 37. Scowling, Sara
38. Trying to get you
stormed off and 39. Dad was almost as 40. The FA Cup is in
lot to agree is lif�e
slammed her hairy as a gorilla. the bag for my team.
plaiting fog.
bedroom door.

41. The single chair 42. The TV beckoned to 44. Tom says he's stuck
43. Mum's got eyes in
sat miserably in the me as I struggled as regularly as
the back of her head.
corner of the room. through my homework. clockwork.

46. The magician 47. The movie star's 48. The ivy hugged the
45. Our new car is
snapped her fingers dazzling diamonds walls of the old
faster than the speed
and my watch were draped around building tightly.
of light.
disappeared. her neck.