Figurative Language

For this activity, decide if a phrase is a simile, a metaphor or personification.


A simile compares two things using 'like' or 'as.'
- Her hair was black as night. -

A metaphor says one thing or action is another thing.
- The road during rush hour is a parking lot. -

A metaphor can also suggest that two unrelated things are similar.
- "Gina was drowning in homework" suggests that having a lot of homework is like drowning in the ocean.

Carl Sandburg compares fog to a cat in his poem "Fog."

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Personification gives humanlike qualities to something nonhuman.
- Lightening danced across the sky. -