11 plus Figurative Language questions

What a Figurative Language question looks like

Figurative Language is the part of 11 plus English that asks your child to name the technique. A short line of writing appears, then five options: a simile, a metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, exaggeration. The task is to say which one is at work in that line.

It is worth being blunt about what these questions do not ask, because the near neighbour catches children out. They never ask what a phrase means. Turning “spilt the beans” into “gave away a secret” is separate meaning work with a different method. Here the words are usually plain enough to follow at first reading, and the question is what the writer has done to say them.

Two other shapes turn up alongside the plain naming question. Some give a longer sentence and ask which image the writer used, so a child has to pick the comparison out from among ordinary objects. Others give five separate sentences and ask which one contains a simile, or a metaphor, or personification. All three are the same skill pointed in different directions: recognise the technique, then say where it is.

Example one: name the technique

“The lake was as smooth as glass.” Is this alliteration, a metaphor, a simile, personification or onomatopoeia?

Read the line and look for a comparison word first, because that is the quickest thing to check. “As smooth as” is comparing the lake to glass, and a comparison made with “like” or “as” is a simile.

The answer is a simile.

The option that tempts children here is a metaphor, and for a good reason: the lake really is being compared to glass, so the comparison half of their thinking is right. A metaphor would have said the lake was glass. The moment “as” appears and does the comparing, it is a simile instead.

Example two: pick out the image

“During break the new pupil was a shadow near the wall, while the other children chased a football across the yard.” What metaphor is used to describe the new pupil?

The sentence names several things: a wall, a football, a yard. Only one of them is being used as a comparison. The pupil is called a shadow, which she is not, so the shadow is the image and everything else is scenery.

The answer is a shadow.

Children who read too fast pick “a football”, because it is a real thing in the sentence and it stands out. It is a genuine object in the yard, not a comparison. Sets like this usually include an option beginning with “like”, such as “like a statue”. It is the right sort of thing and the wrong technique: a phrase starting with “like” is a simile, and the question asked for the metaphor.

Example three: which sentence contains it

Which of these sentences contains personification? The choices are: “The post box stood on the corner of our street”, “Daffodils danced and nodded along the grass verge”, “Sam carried the shopping bags to the front door”, “The library opens at nine on Saturday mornings” and “We caught the late train back from the city”.

Personification gives a human action or feeling to something that is not human, so read each sentence asking one question: is anything here doing something only a person could do? Post boxes stand, libraries open and people carry bags, all of which is ordinary. Daffodils cannot dance or nod a greeting.

The answer is “Daffodils danced and nodded along the grass verge”.

In the harder sets, three of the five sentences carry a technique of some sort, so a child who stops at the first one that sounds poetic will be wrong. One is a simile, one a metaphor, one alliteration, and only one matches the technique the question asked for.

How to answer it

1. Read the line once and decide what the writer has actually done. Not what it means, not whether it is a nice sentence. What technique is being used.
2. Look for “like” or “as” doing the comparing. If one of them is there, it is a simile, and you can stop.
3. If there is no comparison word, ask whether one thing is simply being called another. A stomach that was a knotted ball of string, a playground that was a battlefield. That is a metaphor.
4. If nothing is being compared, listen to the line instead. Several words starting with the same sound is alliteration. A word that copies a real noise, such as splash, clang or squelch, is onomatopoeia.
5. If it is none of those, check the two remaining possibilities. Something not human doing a human thing is personification. A claim far too big to be true, such as a bag that weighs more than a small car, is exaggeration.

Common mistakes

• Explaining the line instead of naming the technique. A child says the writer means the lake was calm and flat. True, and not the question. These questions want the label.
• Calling a metaphor a simile, or a simile a metaphor. Both compare, so the two look alike from a distance. “Like” or “as” is the whole difference, and checking for it takes a second.
• Choosing a real object from the sentence. When the question asks which image was used, the tractor, the gate and the football are all sitting there looking like answers. They are the scenery the comparison is hidden in.
• Mixing up the two sound techniques. Alliteration is about words starting with the same sound. Onomatopoeia is about a word that copies a noise. A sentence can be full of noise and still be neither.
• Reading personification as exaggeration. Hungry waves that swallow a sandcastle sound like an overstatement, but the sea is being given a human feeling, so it is personification.

How to practise 11 plus Figurative Language questions

The technique that helps most is also the cheapest: when you are reading together and a line stands out, stop and ask your child what the writer did there. A few seconds, no worksheet. Doing that regularly builds the recognition these questions test far better than a long session once a fortnight, which is the pattern we set out in how much 11 plus practice a child needs each day. It also helps to give each of the six names one example your child can recall on demand, so the label arrives quickly under pressure. 11+ Daily has a Figurative Language project alongside the other eleven plus English skills, on laptop, tablet or phone, and the full set is listed on our 11 plus English practice page. Every question is original to 11+ Daily, nothing is a past paper and nothing is licensed from another publisher, and the bank is re-checked in rounds.

Questions parents ask