English Devices Flashcards
(24 cards)
Alliteration
The repetition of initial consonant sounds.
E.g. Suddenly, tragedy travelled through our trivial life
Allusion
Short reference to a place, story, or event
E.g. You’re acting like such a Scrooge
Amplification
Repeating a word or expression whilst adding more detail to it.
Emotive language
Words or phrases that are used to illicit an emotional response from the reader/audience
E.g. Threats became a reality
Direct Address
Communicating to the reader/audience in a direct fashion, using the second pronoun you
Comparatives
An adjective or adverb that shows something has more quality than the other.
E.g. faster, stronger
Ethos
Appealing to the reader/audience relying on trustworthiness and credibility
E.g. Most professional dentists recommended…
Antithesis
Contrasting relationship between two ideas.
E.g. I was the right fish in the wrong pond.
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.
Anaphora
Repetition of the same words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences.
Anecdote
A short (usually personal) account of an event.
Blank verse
Unrhymed verse with carefully placed stressed and unstressed syllables (unrhymed iambic pentameter)
(Add example)
Comic relief
Humorous content in a dramatic literary work intended to offset more serious episodes.
E.g. the porter in Act 2 Scene 3
Connotation
An idea or feeling linked to the literal meaning of a word - what it implies or suggests in addition to its literal meaning
Dialogue
A conversation between 2 or more characters
Doggerel
Bad verse - rough and clumsy attempt at speaking in verse
e.g. Act 5 Scene 1 Lady Macbeth
Dramatic irony
When the audience knows something about a character or plot, that the character on stage is unaware of
Foreshadowing
To suggest that something unpleasant will happen later on in the text
Soliloquy
A long speech given by a character, usually on stage, as if they are thinking aloud
Tragedy
A play with an unhappy ending, usually involving the downfall of the main character
Tragic flaw/ hamartia
A defect in a character’s personality that causes the downfall of a character (also known as a fatal flaw)
Prose
Writing that follows the style of normal speech, no rythmic metre
Stichomythia
The use of short, quick alternate lines in dialogue between 2 characters
Irony
Directly contradicting the truth
Symbol
Something that represents something else
