What does a child have to do to identify figurative language in the 11+?

Distinguish a simile, metaphor, or personification from literal language. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the language strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.

What is the trap in an 11+ identify figurative language question?

Every option names a real device, so none of them looks wrong on its own. Only one of them is what this sentence is doing. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.

What is not part of identify figurative language in the 11+?

The skill map draws the line here: Identifies device type, not its extended effect. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.

Which other 11+ skills should we practise alongside identify figurative language?

The skill map connects it to identify textual mood. Recognition of figurative choices can support, but does not determine, mood analysis. That skill has its own page here.

How can my child practise identify figurative language for free?

Use Simile Matcher, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to identify figurative language, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

English · Language

Identify figurative language

Distinguish a simile, metaphor, or personification from literal language.

Practise it now

Tie each opening to the ending it always goes with. One ending is a spare.

Loading the interactive exercise. Nothing you do here is saved or scored.

A worked example

One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.

Worked example: Which device is it?

Worked example: Which device does this sentence use? "The kitchen was a furnace on the last day of term."

simile
alliteration
metaphor
hyperbole

Answer: metaphor

How you get there

This sentence uses metaphor, because it says the kitchen WAS a furnace rather than that it was like one. Nothing is compared using "like" or "as", no word copies a noise, and no three words in a row begin with the same sound.

Why the other answers tempt

Every option names a real device, so none of them looks wrong on its own. Only one of them is what this sentence is doing.

If they are stuck, say this

Check the comparison words first. "Like" or "as ... as" means the writer is comparing; no comparison word but one thing called another means the writer is saying it IS that thing.

Now do it live in Simile Matcher

Kitchen-table script for parents

Try this together

A friendly mini script for the breakfast table, school run or a quiet two minutes. Read it aloud as written, or make it your own.

Ready? Let's have a go at Identify figurative language together. Here comes the question: Worked example: Which device does this sentence use? "The kitchen was a furnace on the last day of term." Before we race ahead, let us choose one good first step. Here is a helpful clue: as" means the writer is comparing; no comparison word but one thing called another means the writer is saying it IS that thing. Nice work. Now let us follow the thinking: Nothing is compared using "like" or "as", no word copies a noise, and no three words in a row begin with the same sound. So our answer is: metaphor. There is one sneaky trap to watch for: Every option names a real device, so none of them looks wrong on its own. Only one of them is what this sentence is doing. Can you show me that first move again in your own words? Brilliant. No rush; we are practising a method you can reuse, not trying to win a speed contest.

What this exercise is doing

Simile Matcher

Tie each opening to the ending it always goes with. One ending is a spare.

Figurative language works by borrowing a picture everybody already shares. A simile keeps the two things apart and links them with like or as, so "as busy as a bee" says the person is like a bee, not a bee. A metaphor drops the link and says one thing simply is the other, so "a blanket of snow" claims the snow is a blanket, which is how you know it is a metaphor rather than a simile. The test is quick: look for like or as, and if it is there you have a simile, and if the sentence just declares one thing to be another you have a metaphor. Choosing the right ending matters too, because these comparisons are fixed phrases: readers hear the whole thing the moment you start it.

What to say if they get stuck

These are phrases people already say. Read each opening aloud and listen for the ending your ear expects.
The comparison has to make sense: pick the creature or thing that is famous for exactly that quality.
Two of these use as ... as, which makes them similes. One says a thing IS something else, which makes it a metaphor.

Open Simile Matcher on its own page to share it

Where identify figurative language sits in the 11+

The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.

The same thinking carries into: Identify textual mood
Recognition of figurative choices can support, but does not determine, mood analysis.

Related english skills

Expand a common abbreviationReplace one common abbreviation with its conventional full form in context.
Identify a sound deviceIdentify alliteration or sound imitation in a short phrase.

All english 11+ skills

Questions parents ask about identify figurative language

Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.

: Distinguish a simile, metaphor, or personification from literal language. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the language strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
: Every option names a real device, so none of them looks wrong on its own. Only one of them is what this sentence is doing. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
: Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Check the comparison words first. "Like" or "as ... as" means the writer is comparing; no comparison word but one thing called another means the writer is saying it IS that thing.
: The skill map draws the line here: Identifies device type, not its extended effect. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
: The skill map connects it to identify textual mood. Recognition of figurative choices can support, but does not determine, mood analysis. That skill has its own page here.
: Use Simile Matcher, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to identify figurative language, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.

Comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation are four different problems

A free diagnostic separates them, so practice goes where the gap actually is rather than on whichever one is easiest to set.

Start the free 11+ diagnostic