Language Features GCSE

Question 1

Personification

Answer 1

To give an inanimate object a human characteristic

“The wind howled”

Question 2

Alliteration

Answer 2

A sequence of words that have the same beginning sound

“Ignite idiots like Icarus”

Question 3

Onomatopoeia

Answer 3

A word that captures a sound

“The man shrieked”

Question 4

Simile

Answer 4

A phrase using ‘like’ or ‘as’ to describe something.

“The night sky was like a coal slab”

Question 5

Metaphor

Answer 5

Saying one thing is another thing

“The thoughts were needles in her head”

Question 6

Sibilance

Answer 6

Alliteration, but only with ‘S’

“Soon, and sometime, I’ll see you somewhere”

Question 7

Rhetorical question

Answer 7

A question with an obvious answer

“Are you thick?”

Question 8

Colloquial language

Answer 8

Informal language, and may contain slang

“Alright, mate what’s up?”

Question 9

Hyperbole

Answer 9

An exaggeration of statements, or claims not meant to be taken seriously
“You took forever!”

Question 10

Imagery

Answer 10

Descriptive language

“The slithering shadows, made of solid smoke, crawled across the floor as the sun set.”

Question 11

Noun

Answer 11

An object or thing

“The man walked”

Question 12

Verb

Answer 12

A word for an action

“The child fell”

Question 13

Adjective

Answer 13

A describing word

“The sharp sword stood in its frame”

Question 14

Adverb

Answer 14

A word to describe a verb

“The building shook violently”

Question 15

Repetition

Answer 15

A word or phrase written or said again and again

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!”

Question 16

Oxymoron

Answer 16

A figure of speech where contradicting terms are used in conjunction
“The deafening silence”

Question 17

Pronoun

Answer 17

A word that replaces a noun

“Jones stopped crying. He got up and left”

Question 18

Abstract noun

Answer 18

A noun denoting something that is not concrete

“This love was dangerous”

Question 19

Proper noun

Answer 19

A noun referring to a single identity, usually beginning with a capital letter.
“Raymond was in London”

Question 20

Collective noun

Answer 20

A collection of things taken as a whole.

“The smack of jellyfish”

Question 21

Assonance

Answer 21

Similar sounds between syllables of nearby words, usually the rhyming of two or more stressed vowels from each word.
“Killed, cold, culled”

Question 22

Dialect

Answer 22

A particular form of language, specific to a region or social group.
“A northern American says, ‘hello’ where a southern American says, ‘HOO WEE DIDDLY DARN DANG HAY THERE BRUTHUR’”

Question 23

Dissonance

Answer 23

A lack of agreement or harmony between things that stops the flow of a piece of writing, or song.

Question 24

Pathos

Answer 24

Appeals to the emotions of the audience and elicits feelings already in them.

Question 25

Rhyme

Answer 25

A repetition of similar sounds in stressed syllables

Question 26

Rhythm

Answer 26

The measured flow of words and phrases in verse or prose as determined by the relation of long and short words or stressed and unstressed syllables.

Question 27

Caesura

Answer 27

A pause near the middle of a line

Question 28

Symbolism

Answer 28

An image or object that signifies an idea, object or relationship.

Question 29

Semantic field

Answer 29

A group of words linking to a certain idea

“Colour: blue, yellow, paint, light, dark”

Question 30

Preposition

Answer 30

Where or when something is in relation to something else

“Before, after, on, under”

Question 31

Article

Answer 31

A word that defines a noun as specific or unspecific

“A, an, the”

Question 32

Enjambment

Answer 32

The flow of words continuing through lines (in poetry)