FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech are ways of creating imagery by using figurative language, through which we conjure the picture of two or more things into writing and thereby bringing out very aptly the quantity or idea we are presenting.
Table of Contents
Examples:
SIMILE
A simile is that figure of speech in which a likeness is definitely or formally expressed. It is introduced by “like” “as” e.t.c.
Examples
He runs like a hare
Her cheeks appear as the dawn of day.
METAPHOR
It is a figure of speech founded on the resemblance. It is also used like simile to create a picture or images of events without using as or like.
Examples
The general, who is a lion in the field, has seen many wars.
He is no good at crickets, he has okro fingers.
PERSONIFICATION
It is the transfer of the quality of human being to animals and inanimate objects.
Examples
Let the floods clap their hands.
Confusion heard his voice.
IRONY
It is also a device by which a writer expresses a contrary meaning, which appears contrary to the stated or ostensible one.
Examples
Charles is so brilliant that he passed one subject out of his nine papers.
He is such a good keeper that he conceded ten goals in the first half of the match.
RHETORICAL QUESTIONS: This is a kind of question which requires no answer.
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ESSAY WRITING (DESCRIPTIVE)
A descriptive essay is the one that requires you to write a description of, for example, an object, a person, an animal, an incident or scene.
Let us examine how a descriptive essay question like the following one should be treated.
“Describe a rainy day you will live to remember
FORMAT
Describe the ordinary details of a rain
Describe the kind of rain it was and how long it lasted
State the effects of the rain: both the comfort which the rain brought and the inconveniences or damages it caused
Do not limit your consideration to the area where you live (urban or rural)
Show great imagination in your description
The presentation of the essay should be logically arranged. Describe incidents that took place in the morning before moving on to those that followed in the afternoon, then, later in the evening.
SPEECH WORK: DIPHTHONGS
Examples
We have eight diphthongs. They are two quality sounds. To realise their sounds, you must glide from the first to the second sound:
The eight diphthongs are these:
/ei/, /au/, /ai/, /эi/, /iƏ/, /eƏ/, /υƏ/
/ei/
Spelling variants and words examples are:
“a” – cake, brake, make, lake, plate,
“ai” – braid, sail,
“ay” – May, day
“au” – gauge,
“ey” – they, hey, prey
“ei” – rein, reign, heinous
“e” – ballet, brought, chalet
“ee” – fiancée, nee
“ea” – great, break, steak
/ Əυ/- The long sound for letter “o”
As in:
“au” – chauffeur, faults
“o” – go, rote, note
“eo” – hoe, foe
“oa” – goat, both, road
“ou” – grow, thrown
“ew” – sew, sewn
“oo” – brooch
/ai/
“ai” – aisle , naira
“ei” – height, either
“ey” – eye
“uy” – buy, guy
“ye” – bye, dye
“y” – Scythe, by, sky
“ie” – pie, tie, lie, die
/aυ/,
“ou” – doubt, count, stout, about,
“au” –Nassau
“ow” – how, cow, allow
/Ɔi/ as in
“oi”- boil, oil, noise
“oy” – boy, employ
“uoy” – buoy, buoyant
/iƏ/ as in
“e” – era, period
“ea” – idea, pear, beard
“ere” – here, mere
“eer” – peer, sheer
“ier”- pier, weir
“ir” – fakir
/eƏ/ – as in
“ir” – air , fair, hair
“are” – care, fare, dare
“ear”- bear, tear, wear
“ere”- there, where
/uƏ/ as in
“u” – plural , during
“ure” – pure, cure, sure
“our” – tour
“oor” moor, boor, poor
Read also:
Kinds of Sentences | Simple, Multiple, Compound & Complex
Noun Phrase, Verb Phrase, Vocabulary Development & Spelling
Essay Writing: Types of Essays, Monothongs & Idioms
Phrasal verbs, Adverbs, Conjunctions and Prepositions
Parts of Speech | Noun, Pronoun, Verb Adjective & Spelling