What is Figurative Language?

1. Figurative language is language that uses words or expressions with a meaning that is different from the literal interpretation. When a writer uses literal language, he or she is simply stating the facts as they are.
   Example:  "Kevin Anderson is a good PE teacher, but he smells like monkey armpits." That is a factual statement, and it is not figurative language.  
   Example:  "Mrs. Kempton is a beautiful ray of sunshine, glittering across the rippling surface of a giggling brook."  This is figurative language, because although Mrs. Kempton is clearly beautiful and her radiance could be compared to sunshine, she cannot LITERALLY be both human and a ray of sun at the same time.  Also brooks don't giggle.  But it kind of sounds like they do.  That's why people always refer to brooks as giggling, laughing, chuckling, etc.  
   *NOTE:  this is a good time to discuss the word "cliche."  A cliche is a phrase or description or idea that has been overused.  An example would be if we walked out into a heavy rainstorm and I said, "Boy, it's raining cats and dogs today!"  People always say that when it's raining a lot.  
   Activity:  let's see how many cliches we can come up with as a class. :)  
   
   Ok, that was fun.  Time to watch a video and learn more about the types of figurative language.  Figurative Language Video