Figures of speech (修辞)are ways of making our language figurative. When we use words in other than their ordinary or literal sense to lend force to an idea, to heighten effect, or to create suggestive imagery, we are said to be speaking or writing figuratively. Now we are going to talk about some common forms of figures of speech. 修辞是提高语言表达效果的语言艺术。
它能使语言生动形象、具体活泼，给人以美的享受。
1)Simile：(明喻）It is a figure of speech which makes a comparison between two unlike elements having at least one quality or characteristic (特性)in common. To make the comparison, words like as, as...as, as if and like are used to transfer thequality we associate with one to the other.Simile 与汉语的明喻基本相同，用某一事物或情境来比拟另一个事物或情境。
其本体和喻体均同时出现在句中，在形式上是相对应的。
英语 simile 的标志词常用like, as, seem, as if, as though, similar to, such as等. 汉语明喻的比喻词通常是"好象"、"仿佛"等。
例如：As busy as a beeAs happy as a clam (at hightide)Like a cat on hot bricks热锅上的蚂蚁To spend money like water挥金如土They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails.这些人犹如街上的有轨电车，满足于在自己的轨道上运行。
2)Metaphor：(暗喻）It is like a simile, also makes a comparison between two unlike elements, but unlike a simile, this comparison is implied rather than stated. 隐喻是简缩了的明喻,是将某一事物的名称用于另一事物,通过比较形成.（no indicator of resemblance）For example, the world is a stage. Speech is silver, silence is gold. Union is strength.Experience is the mother of wisdom. 经验为智慧之母。
3)Analogy: (类比,借喻）It is also a form of comparison, but unlike simile or metaphor which usually uses comparison on one point of resemblance, analogy draws a parallel between two unlike things that have several common qualities orpoints of resemblance. 根本不说出本体（tenor），或不在本句子中说出来，而把喻体(vehicle)直接用在本体应该出现的地方。
Make hay while the sun shines.趁热打铁An empty sack cannot stand upright.空口袋立不直Prov. A poor or hungry person cannot function properly. Sit down and have something to eatbefore you go back to work. An empty sack can't stand upright.无钱寸步难行；肚子饿了会难受4) Personification: (拟人）It gives human form of feelings to animals, or life and personal attributes(赋予) to inanimate(无生命的) objects, or to ideas and abstractions(抽象).personification 与汉语拟人完全相同，就是赋予物以人的言语属性。
这种拟人化的修辞手法读起来使人感到特别形象生动、富有情趣。
例如：Words pay no debts. 空话还不了债。
The wind whistled through the trees.Time and tide wait for no man.Justice has a long arm.O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being, /Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead, /Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.啊，狂野的西风，汝秋神之呼吸/ 无影踪就把落叶一扫而空/好似巫师驱散了群鬼。
5)Hyperbole: (夸张）：It is the deliberate use of overstatement or understatement to achieve emphasis.夸张是以言过其实的说法表达强调的目的.它可以加强语势,增加表达效果.例如:I love you. You are the whole world to me, and the moon and the stars.When she heard the bad news, a river of tears poured out.Every lover sees a thousand graces in the beloved object. 情人眼里出西施She was really dressed to the teeth at the party.(她在舞会上穿得真是豪华。
——夸张说她“连牙齿都盛装到了”。
) She eats like a bird.(她食量很小——缩小为“吃得像小鸟一样少”。
)His father hit the ceiling to know of her bad grades.(他父亲听说了她的差成绩，暴跳如雷。
——生气得“跳起来撞到了天花板”。
)6) Euphemism: (委婉）It is the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive(无冒犯) expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant. For instance, we refer to "die" as” pass away".用sanitation engineer 替代garbage man(清洁工)用the disadvantaged替代the poor(穷人)用industrial action替代strike(罢工)7) Metonymy (借代) It is a figure of speech that has to do with the substitution of the name of one thing for that of another. 又称为换喻或转喻。
不相类似的两者之间存在不可分离的关系，故借用一种事物的名称来代替另一种相关的事物名称，或由一种概念来替代另一种相关的概念。
I.以容器代替内容,例如:1>.The kettle is boiling. 水壶开了.2>.The room sat silent. 全屋人安静地坐着.II.以资料.工具代替事物的名称,例如: Lend me your ears, please. 请听我说.The pen (words) is mightier than the sword (forces). 笔锋利于剑。
[出处]：B.Lytton 利顿(英国政治家) III.以作者代替作品,例如:a complete Shakespeare 莎士比亚全集I’m reading Lu Xun.我正在阅读鲁迅的作品。
VI.以具体事物代替抽象概念,例如:What is learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.幼小说学，终生不忘。
8) Sy’necdoche (提喻、举隅法）It is involves the substitution of the part for the whole, or the whole for the part. 是不直接说某一事物的名称，而是借事物的本身所呈现的各种对应的现象来表现该事物的这样一种修辞手段。
提喻又称举隅法。
是借代的有一种类型，用局部来代替整体，或者用整体代替局部。
局部代整体：For instance, they say there's bread and work for all.She was dressed in red.You people should have more respect for the grey hair.年轻人应更加尊重老年人。
Many hands provide great strength. Quick lunches at 2 yuan a head.每位客人2块钱的快餐。
整体代替局部：China won in the football match. 中国队在足球比赛中赢了。
He is a poor creature. 他是个可怜虫。
9) Pun: (双关语）It is a play on words, or rather a play on the form and meaning of words.For instance,a cannon-ball took off his legs, so he laid down his arms. 多义词双关(Here "arms" has two meanings: a person's body; weapons carried by a soldier.) What does that lawyer do after he dies?--Lie still. 多义词双关那个律师死后干什么？──躺着仍说鬼话。