N FCURATIVELY SPEAKING UNDERSTANDMC SIMILES BY ROBIN JOHNSON n In Crabtree Publishing Company www crabtreebooks com
WHAT IS A SIMILE Are you as cool as a cucumber Are you and your best friend like two peas in a pod These sentences both contain similes Similes are figures of speech that compare two unlike things A simile uses the words like or as to compare one thing to another Are you calm and cool under pressure Cucumbers feel cool to the touch You don t look much like a cucumber But you and the cucumber have something in common being cool You are not round and green like a pea Peas that grow in the same pod or case all look the same If you and your friend dress or act alike then you have something in common with peas in a pod You could say that similes are like vegetables Vegetables help your body grow Similes help your stories grow Vegetables are good for your health and similes are good for your writing Similes are found in all kinds of writing from nursery rhymes to poems to novels They are also I used in everyday
FIGURATIVE OR LITERALP We use two types of language to tell stories We use literal language to state facts or describe things as they really are We say Hannah was really hungry She ate three cheeseburgers That is a true statement She literally ate three burgers Figurative language uses words or sayings with meanings that are different from their usual literal meanings We say Hannah ate like a horse She had a pizza as big as the moon Hannah did not really eat like a horse She did not stand in a field and eat grass But she did eat a lot of food so she was similar to a horse in that way Her pizza was not actually the size of the moon But the simile tells us the pizza was big and round We use the words like and as in both literal and figurative language But not every sentence with like and as includes a simile It must also compare two unlike things LYTERAL FIGURATIVE I like to eat bacon for breakfast The sentence on the left does not have a simile because it does not make a comparison The sentence on the right includes a simile The kids ate their breakfast like pigs LITERAL FIGURATIVE My cherry pie tastes as good as your pumpkin pie The sentence on the left does not have a simile because it compares two things that are alike The sentence on the right includes a simile Learning about similes is as easy as
