There are really hard things to learn at school and we all remember the hours spent struggling, whether in elementary school or high school. Multiplication tables are at the top of the list of course, but there were also irregular verbs in English and figures of speech in French. So obviously, it’s important to master the French language so as not to make horrible mistakes in French and not to use words that don’t exist. But frankly, these figures of speech… Fortunately, @cycylcds on Twitter did a summary illustrating the whole thing with rap punchlines.
1. Comparison and metaphor
Table of Contents
Comparison and metaphor were the simplest figures of speech but, who knows why, we always managed to make mistakes.
2. Allegory
We use allegories every day without realizing it and it is surely the prettiest figure of speech.
3. Chiasmus
It’s pretty a chiasm, too bad the word is so ugly.
4. Assonance
Why bother using multiple vowels when you can use just one?
5. Alliteration
“Are the Archduchess’s socks dry?” Arch-dry? aka the sentence that made you stylish in primary if you could pronounce it.
6. Parechesis
Nekfeu you’re in the abuse frankly.
7. Paronomasia
He’s too much of a poet, this Nekfeu anyway
8. The Oxymoron
In everyday life, it’s a mistake in French but in poetry it passes cream.
9. The Antithesis
Antithesis… This word reminds me of dark memories of French and philosophy… The famous “thesis, antithesis, synthesis”. I still have nightmares about it.
10. Epanorthosis
Why choose such complicated words for such simple concepts?
11. Anaphora
The famous “Me, president” that we have heard far too much.
12. Epiphora
A little lazy I find, but who am I to judge?
13. Hyperbole
Not sure if that’s really hyperbole for Sneazzy.
14. Understatement
Instead of saying “I’d rather die than go back to school at the start of the school year”, say “I would have liked to have had an extra week of vacation”.
15. Gradation
Do you prefer ascending or descending? Me chocolatine.
16. Enumeration
They could make their shopping list in a sound and we would still sing.
17. Personification
“So ugly that they make the Laughing Cow cry”… Digidix, we miss you.
18. Pleonasm
There are plenty of pleonasms that we use every day and we are certainly not going to stop.
19. Metonymy
It is true that if I am offered a drink on the terrace, I would be a little disappointed to have an empty glass.
20. Periphrase
Super useful to arrive at a minimum number of words in an essay.
If you still want to improve your French, you can find out which words you use badly according to the French Academy (it may hurt your ego).