A phrase is literal when it describes something that really happens in the scene. It is figurative when it borrows an image to say something else, so that the exact words could not be true. Knowing which one you have decides how you explain it, and it follows on from explaining a phrase in its context.
How do you tell the difference?
Use the “could it be true?” test. Picture the scene and ask whether the words, taken exactly, could happen.
- “The kettle was hot enough to scald.” A kettle can be that hot, so this is literal.
- “The kettle screamed.” A kettle makes a sound, but it cannot scream, so this is figurative. It compares a whistle to a human cry.
Figurative phrases usually carry a feeling. “Screamed” adds urgency and discomfort that “whistled” would not.
How to work through it, step by step
- Picture the scene and decide what is physically there.
- Apply the test: could this happen exactly as written?
- If not, name the comparison: this is like what?
- State what the comparison suggests: which quality does the writer want us to notice?
- Stay with the passage: link the suggestion to the situation.
Worked example
Read this original passage: “Ayu’s inbox was an ocean. By Friday she was drowning, though the only water in the room was the cold tea at her elbow.”
Question: Identify what is literal and what is figurative, and explain the figurative language.
Step 1, scene: A girl at a desk with a computer and a cup of cold tea.
Step 2, test: The tea is really there, so it is literal. An inbox cannot be an ocean and she cannot drown at a desk, so “ocean” and “drowning” are figurative.
Step 3, comparison: The inbox is compared to an ocean, and her struggle is compared to drowning.
Step 4, suggestion: The emails are huge and endless, and she feels overwhelmed and unable to cope.
Answer: “‘Ocean’ and ‘drowning’ are figurative. They compare the flood of emails to a vast body of water that overwhelms Ayu. The cold tea is literal and, by contrast, shows how ordinary her real surroundings are.”
The mistake to watch for
Two opposite slips are common. One is to take the image literally.
Mistaken answer: “Ayu nearly drowned because her inbox was full of water.”
The student ignored the last clause, which says the only water was tea. The other slip is to call everything figurative because it sounds dramatic. “The door slammed shut” can be perfectly literal if a door was slammed.
The correction is to apply the test every time, rather than relying on how strong the phrase sounds.
Check yourself
Write your answer first.
1. Decide which is literal and which is figurative: (a) “The kettle screamed.” (b) “The kettle was hot enough to scald.”
Show answer
(a) Figurative. A kettle cannot scream, so the word compares the whistle to a cry. (b) Literal. A kettle really can be hot enough to scald.
2. “Time is a thief; it took my whole afternoon.” Is “thief” literal or figurative, and what does it suggest?
Show answer
Figurative. Time is not a person who steals. It suggests that time disappears without permission, leaving the speaker feeling robbed of the afternoon.
3. Which is literal: (a) “Sam’s heart turned to stone when he heard the news.” (b) “Sam dropped a stone into the well.”
Show answer
(b) is literal, because a stone can really be dropped into a well. (a) is figurative: a heart cannot become stone, so the phrase suggests that Sam felt heavy, cold and unable to react.
Where this leads next
Next, learn how to state a meaning without repeating the word in avoiding circular definitions. The practice set mixes literal and figurative questions. Use the summary selection and paraphrase studio to rewrite a figurative phrase as plain statement.
Some students can spot a metaphor but find it hard to say what it suggests. Our teachers work on this gap in online one-to-one English First Language tuition.