Figurative Language and Nuance
Aligned to L.9-10.5 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
What this lesson teaches
Understand figures of speech, relationships between words, and the fine differences among near-synonyms that change a sentence's shade of meaning.
Worked example
'Thrifty,' 'frugal,' and 'stingy' all mean spending little, but 'stingy' adds a negative judgment the others avoid — nuance that shifts how a person is seen.
Practice questions
- Explain the difference in feeling between two near-synonyms.
- Interpret one figure of speech and state its literal meaning.
- Describe how word choice shows an author's attitude toward a subject.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Lenguaje figurado y matices
Comprende las figuras retóricas, las relaciones entre palabras y las diferencias finas entre sinónimos cercanos que cambian el matiz de una oración.
Ejemplo: «Ahorrativo», «frugal» y «tacaño» significan gastar poco, pero «tacaño» añade un juicio negativo que los otros evitan; un matiz que cambia cómo se ve a una persona.
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