Literary Devices and Grammar Rules Explained

Literary Devices and Poetic Terms

• Alliteration: Repetition of the same consonant sound, often at the beginning of words.
• Assonance: Repetition of the same vowel sound.
• Elegy: A poem lamenting the death of a person; a sad poem.
• Enjambment: Line ending in which the sense continues with no punctuation into the following line or stanza.
• Hyperbole: Figure of speech using deliberate exaggeration for emphasis.
• Imagery: Use of figures of speech or description in literature.
• Limerick: Light, humorous poem of five lines with the rhyme scheme aabba.
• Litotes: Figure of speech in which a positive is stated by negating its opposite.
• Lyric: Poem, such as a sonnet, expressing the thoughts and feelings of the poet.
• Metaphor: Figure of speech comparing two things.
• Onomatopoeia: Figure of speech where words imitate sounds.
• Personification: Figure of speech where inanimate objects are given living qualities.
• Refrain: Phrase or line repeated in a poem.
• Rhyme: Occurrence of same or similar sounds at the end of words.
• Simile: Two things are compared using words like or as.
• Sonnet: Lyric poem 14 lines long.
• Stanza: Another word for a verse.
• Stress: Emphasis given to particular syllables.
• Symbol: Word, image, or phrase that stands for an idea.

Grammar: Conditional Sentences

Conditionals describe situations that depend on a condition being met.

Zero Conditional

If + Present Simple, Present Simple.

Example: If you drive badly, you crash.

First Conditional

If + Present Simple, Future Simple (will + base verb).

Example: If you drive badly, you'll crash.

Second Conditional

If + Past Simple, would + base verb.

Example: If I drove badly, I would crash.

Third Conditional

If + Past Perfect, would have + past participle.

Example: If you hadn't gone, you wouldn't have broken your leg.

Verb Tenses Comparison