TGT/PGT English Crash Course Class #26

# TGT/PGT/LT/GIC/BPSC/JSSC/DSSSB-2025 Crash Course English - Practice - Revision - Mock Test - Model Paper # Figures of Speech - 07 January @ 7PM LIVE - Theory + MCQs ## Figures of Speech May be Classified as Under: 1. Those based on Resemblance - Simile - Metaphor - Personification...

# TGT/PGT/LT/GIC/BPSC/JSSC/DSSSB-2025 Crash Course English - Practice - Revision - Mock Test - Model Paper # Figures of Speech - 07 January @ 7PM LIVE - Theory + MCQs ## Figures of Speech May be Classified as Under: 1. Those based on Resemblance - Simile - Metaphor - Personification - Apostrophe 2. Those based on Contrast - Antithesis - Epigram 3. Those based on association - Metonymy - Synecdoche 4. Those depending on construction - Climax - Anticlimax ## 1 - Simile - In a Simile a comparison is made between two objects of different kinds which have however at least one point in common. - The Simile is usually introduced by such words as "like", "as" or "so". ### Examples: 1. The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold. 2. The righteous shall flourish as the palm tree. 3. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. ### Note: A comparison of two things of the same kind is not a simile. ## 2 - Metaphor - A Metaphor is an implied Simile. It does not, like the Simile, state that one thing is like another or acts as another, but takes that for granted and proceeds as if the two things were one. - Thus, when we say, 'He fought like a lion' we use a Simile, but when we say, 'He was a lion in the fight', we use a Metaphor. ### Examples: 1. The camel is the ship of the desert. 2. Life is a dream. ### Note 1 - Every simile can be compressed into a Metaphor and every Metaphor can be expanded into a Simile. - Thus, instead of saying, 'Richard fought like a lion (Simile)', we can say, 'The camel is the ship of the desert (Metaphor)' - Similarly, instead of saying, 'The camel is the ship of the desert (Metaphor)' we may expand it and say, 'As a ship is used for crossing the ocean, so the camel is used for crossing the desert (Simile)'. ### Note 2: Metaphor should never be mixed. That is, an object should not be identified with two or more different things in the same sentence. The following is a typical example what is called a Mixed Metaphor: I smell a rat; I see it floating in the air; but I will nip it in the bud. ## 3 - Personification: - In Personification inanimate objects and abstract notions are spoken of as having life and intelligence. ### Examples: 1. In Saxon strength that abbey frowned. 2. Laughter holding both her sides. ## 4 - Apostrophe - An Apostrophe is a direct address to the dead, to the absent, or to a personified object or idea. - This figure is a special form of Personification. ### Examples: 1. Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour. 2. O Friend! I know not which way I must look For, comfort. 3. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean-roll! 4. O death! where is thy sting? O grave! where is thy victory? ## 5 - Hyperbole - In Hyperbole a statement is made emphatic by overstatement. ### Examples: 1. Here's the smell of blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. 2. Why, man, if the river were dry, I am able to fill it with tears. 3. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. ## 6 - Euphemism - Euphemism consists in the description of a disagreeable thing by an agreeable name. ### Examples: 1. He has fallen asleep (i.e., he is dead). 2. You are telling me a fairy tale (i.e., a lie). ## 7 - Antithesis - In antithesis a striking opposition or contrast of words or sentiments is made in the same sentence. - It is employed to secure emphasis. ### Examples: 1. Man proposes, God disposes. 2. Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more. 3. Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. ## 8 - Oxymoron: - Oxymoron is a special form of Antithesis, whereby two contradictory qualities are predicted at once of the same thing. ### Examples: 1. His honour rooted in dishonour stood. And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true. 2. So innocent arch, so cunningly simple. 3. She accepted it as the kind cruelty of the surgeon's knife. ## 9 - Epigram: - An Epigram is a brief pointed saying frequently introducing antithetical ideas which excite surprise and arrest attention. ### Examples: 1. The child is father of the man. 2. A man can't be too careful in the choice of his enemies. 3. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. ## 10 - Irony: - Irony is a mode of speech in which the real meaning is exactly the opposite of that which is literally conveyed. ### Examples: 1. No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with you. 2. The atrocious crime of being a young man, which the honourable gentle man has, with such spirit and decency, charged upon me. I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny. ## 11 - Pun: - Pun consists in the use of a word in such a way that it is capable of more than one application, the object being to produce a ludicrous effect. ### Examples: 1. Is life worth living?-It depends upon the liver. 2. An ambassador is an honest man who lies abroad for the good of his country. ## 12 - Metonymy: - In Metonymy (literally, a change of name) an object is designated by the name of something which is generally associated with it. ### Some familiar examples - The Bench, for the judges. - The House, for the members of Lok Sabha. - The laurel, for success. - Red-coats, for British soldiers. ## 13 - Synecdoche: - Synecdoche a part is used to designate the whole or the whole to designate a part. ### (i) A part used to designate the whole; as, - Give us this day our daily bread (i.e., food). - All hands (i.e., crew) to the pumps. - Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. - A fleet of fifty sail (i.e., ships) left the harbour. - All the best brains in Europe could not solve the problem. - He has many mouths to feed. ## 14 - Transferred Epithet: - In this figure an epithet is transferred from its proper word to another that is closely associated with it in the sentence. ### Examples: 1. He passed a sleepless night. 2. The ploughman homeward plods his weary way. 3. A lackey presented an obsequious cup of coffee. ## 15 - Litotes: - In Litotes an affirmative is conveyed by negation of the opposite, the effect being to suggest a strong expression by means of a weaker. - It is the opposite of Hyperbole. ### Examples: 1. I am a citizen of no mean (= a very celebrated) city. 2. The man is no fool (= very clever). 3. I am not a little (= greatly) surprised. ## 16 - Interrogation: - Interrogation is the asking of a question not for the sake of getting an answer, but to put a point more effectively. - This figure of speech is also known as Rhetorical Question because a question is asked merely for the sake of rhetorical effect. ### Examples: 1. Am I my brother's keeper? 2. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 3. Shall I wasting in despair. Die because a woman's fair? ## 17 - Exclamation: - In this figure the exclamatory form is used to draw greater attention to a point than a mere bald statement of it could do. ### Examples: 1. What a piece of work is man! 2. How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank! 3. O what a fall was there, my countrymen! ## 18 - Climax: - Climax (Gk. Klimax = a ladder) is the arrangement of a series of ideas in the order of increasing importance. ### Examples: 1. Simple, erect, severe, austere, sublime. 2. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculties! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! ## 19 - Anticlimax: - Anticlimax is the opposite of Climax - a sudden descent from higher to lower. - It is chiefly used for the purpose of satire or ridicule. ### Examples: 1. Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take - and sometimes tea. 2. And thou. Dalhousie, the great god of war, Lieutenant-Colonel to the Earl of Mar. ## Name the various Figures of Speech in the following: 1. The more haste, the less speed. _Antithesis_ 2. I must be taught my duty, and by you! _Personification_ 3. Plead, Sleep, my cause, and make her soft like thee. _Simile_ 4. Charity suffereth long, and is kind. _Personification_ 5. He makes no friend, who never made a foe. _Antithesis_ 6. He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He No see? _Interrogation_ 7. Let not ambition mock their useful toil. _Personification_ 8. To gossip is a fault; to libel, a crime; to slander, a sin. _Climax_ 9. Oh! what a noble mind is here overthrown! _Apostrophe_ 10. Excess of ceremony shows want of breeding. _Epigram_ 11. Why all this toil for triumphs of an hour? 12. Fools who came to scoff, remained to pray. 13. The Puritan had been rescued by no common deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. 14. The cup that cheers but no inebriates.