When you are writing a story, you want the story to be interesting and catchy, right? We use special techniques to make our stories more interesting. Let’s talk about two of those techniques. Onomatopoeia and personification.
Onomatopoeia is when a word sounds like the noise it describes. These are words like:
Boom! (an explanation)
Splash! (water being hit by a rock or a ball)
Meow (the sound a cat makes)
Woof! (the sound a dog makes)
What Is Personification?
Personification is when we give human-like qualities to things that are not human, such as objects, ideas or animals. You can describe an animal as if it can think or feel. You can do this to the sun or the moon as well.
What Are Five Examples of Personification?
The sun smiled down at us as we climbed up the hill. (The sun doesn’t have a face so it doesn’t smile. But this statement means that the sun appeared warm and friendly, not too strong)
The wind whispered through the trees, all the while as our dog, Juniper, chased the squirrels. (The wind can’t actually whisper can it, but this makes it sound magical.)
The alarm clock screamed at me to wake up but I snoozed it. (An alarm clock can’t scream but this means that the sound the alarm clock made was really loud and annoying.)
The flowers nodded their heads in the breeze. (Flowers don’t have heads and so they can’t nod. This simply means that the flowers were gently moving in the wind.)
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds as the wolves furiously howled . (The moon can’t peek like a person, but this makes it sound playful and mysterious.)
If you see a sentence that describes a sound (Bang! Crash! Woof!), that’s onomatopoeia. If you see a sentence that makes something act like a person (The stars danced in the sky), that’s personification.
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