Year 6 — Vocabulary

Figurative language

Use the full range of figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification) with control, and understand idioms confidently, including recognising them in unfamiliar contexts.

Back to Year 6

💡Understand

By Year 6, using figurative language means choosing it DELIBERATELY for a specific effect, not just including it for decoration. A METAPHOR states something IS something else; a SIMILE compares using 'like' or 'as'; PERSONIFICATION gives human qualities to non-human things.

“The city never sleeps, its streets pulsing with restless energy long after midnight.”

"The city never sleeps" personifies the city, giving it a human quality (sleeping/not sleeping) to suggest constant, restless activity — chosen deliberately to create a vivid sense of the city's non-stop energy, not just as decoration.

🔍Spot it

Identify the figurative technique and its deliberate effect.

Question 1

"The wind howled through the abandoned house."

💡 "Howled" gives the wind an animal-like quality, building an unsettling atmosphere.

Question 2

"Her determination was a furnace, burning through every obstacle."

💡 The sentence states determination IS a furnace directly, without using 'like' or 'as' — a metaphor.

Question 3

"He ran like the wind."

💡 The comparison uses 'like', which makes it a simile rather than a metaphor.

🧠Think about it

Why is choosing figurative language DELIBERATELY, for a specific effect, more sophisticated than including it just because 'good writing has description'?

✍️Try it

Identify the idiom and its meaning in context.

After weeks of rehearsal, the cast finally felt ready to break a leg on opening night.

Question 1

What does "break a leg" mean in this context?

💡 Think about the theatrical context and what this common idiom actually means.

📝Practise

Identify the figurative technique, or the idiom's meaning.

Question 1

"The old floorboards groaned under every step."

Question 2

"Life is a rollercoaster, full of unexpected twists."

Question 3

"As brave as a lion" is an example of...

Question 4

In one word, what figurative device gives human qualities to non-human things?

💡 It's one of the three techniques reviewed in this lesson.

Question 5

"Don't beat around the bush" means...

Question 6

Why should figurative language always serve a deliberate purpose, rather than being decorative?

🎯Apply

Read the passage, then answer the questions below.

The old man's memory was a locked door, and no amount of gentle knocking from his grandchildren could open it. Still, they visited every Sunday, hoping that one day, against all odds, the door might finally creak open. Their patience never faltered, even when he called them by the wrong names — again and again, they simply smiled and started over.

Question 1

What technique is used in "his memory was a locked door", and what effect does it create?

💡 Notice the sentence states his memory IS a locked door directly, without 'like' or 'as'.

Question 2

What does "gentle knocking" continue and extend in the passage?

Question 3

How often do the grandchildren visit, according to the passage?

💡 It's stated directly in the passage.

🏆Challenge

Write a short passage (three to four sentences) about a difficult situation, using a metaphor that you extend across more than one sentence (like the 'locked door' example above), chosen deliberately for a specific effect.

🔄Review

A quick mastery check — 3 questions.

Question 1

"The stars danced across the night sky."

Question 2

"Time is money."

Question 3

"It's raining cats and dogs" means...

Want to practise building words from prefixes, suffixes and roots? Try the word-family builder →