{"id":844,"date":"2012-03-14T08:07:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-14T12:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=844"},"modified":"2014-08-01T16:28:36","modified_gmt":"2014-08-01T20:28:36","slug":"similes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/similes\/","title":{"rendered":"Similes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s been a hard day\u2019s night, and I\u2019ve been working like a dog.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 The Beatles<\/strong><\/p>\n

A simile is something compared with something else to create an image in the reader\u2019s mind. A simile usually includes the words \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can create similes for adjectives<\/a> (as light as a petal), verbs<\/a> (He crawled like a snail.) and nouns<\/a> (The heat was like a blazing bonfire.).<\/p>\n

Similes, when used well, can really expand your writing. They allow you to describe the scene to your reader (the chocolate mousse was as smooth as velvet) rather than just telling them (the chocolate mousse was smooth). This means that your reader will imagine and visualize what you mean. Also, when you tell your reader rather than show them, you can\u2019t be certain that your reader will understand what you mean.<\/p>\n

If you say, \u201cthe soup was hot,\u201d hot might mean really, really hot to one person but only lukewarm to someone else. However, if you said, \u201cthe soup was as hot as lava,\u201d I\u2019m pretty sure your reader would get a clear idea of just how hot that soup was!<\/p>\n

Now that you have a good idea of how powerful similes can be in your writing, let\u2019s create some.<\/p>\n

1. Practice writing new similes by thinking of comparisons for these adjectives:<\/strong><\/p>\n