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Shmoop so we know all about similes and how they can punch up your writing or [a fist punching]

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figuratively we don't know if similes are training for the UFC or anything but

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what happens if we want to branch out beyond similes is there something else

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out there we can use well you betcha hold on to your hat because today we're [a man gripping on to his hat]

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talking about metaphors before we wade too deep in the metaphorical pool let's

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take a step back but we feel safer in our floaties well as we might recall [ybaby floating in a pool]

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figurative language is the use of words without taking their literal meanings

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we've seen one form of figurative language before similes which compare

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one thing to something else using either the word like or as well similes can be [two people riding a rollercoaster]

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a great way to liven up our description but if you use too many in a row all

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those likes and as's might make your audience as bored as an astronaut on a

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trampoline okay trampolines might be exciting to us [an astronaut bouncing on a trampoline]

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but once you've been to space nothing is very thrill luckily we can

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still use figurative language and we can do it without using one like or add as

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[people jumping off a rock into the water] time to jump in a metaphor compares one thing to something else without using

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the word like or as not even one sounds like magic right well let's see how this

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works with an example say we're describing a really really hot subway [a yellow subway riding through a platform]

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stop we can use a simile and say the subway stop was as hot as an inferno or

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we could just cut out all those as's and the word hot and say a subway stop

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[a burning subway train] was an inferno in case you're worried we've just said something false oh don't worry

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we're still using figurative language I'm not saying the subway stop was

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literally an inferno come on people after all it's really tough to run [a firefighter stood by a crashed subway train]

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Subway's over rails that have melted but we're just comparing two elements of the

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sentence the subway stop and an inferno and just like that we have a great [a great big fire]

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metaphor on our hands and no one at subway stop needs to worry about their

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[a man at the subway stop with a burning hat] clothes going up in flames the metaphors are so common in everyday speech that

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you probably use them all the time ever heard of fresh snowfall referred to as a

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blanket of snow yeah you guessed it that's a metaphor comparing the snow to

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a blanket very rarely will anyone meet a little blanket made of snow sewing it [a blanket wearing a hat in the snow]

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together would be a real nightmare

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