What is Alliteration?
Alliteration is when two or more words that start with the same sound are used repeatedly in a phrase or a sentence. The repeated sound creates alliteration, not the same letter.
For example, ‘tasty tacos’ is considered an alliteration, but ‘thirty typists’ is not because ‘th’ and ‘ty’ don’t sound the same. Alliteration is a type of repetition – a repetition of sounds.
Words that begin with the same sound don’t have to be necessarily near each other to be considered alliteration. There’s no rule saying how many words apart they can be, but the best way to figure out if alliteration is used in a text is by reading it aloud. The sound will tickle your ears!
An example of alliteration is: ‘The bird sang sweetly.’
Alliteration can also be called head rhyme or initial rhyme.
What Are 5 Examples of Alliteration?
Why Do We Use Alliteration?
Alliteration can make your words more engaging and entertaining. When your writing engages your audience, they’re more likely to pay attention and remember what you say.
Alliteration gives musicality and rhythm to your words. That’s why poets decided to use it long ago and continue to do so. It can help keep the poem moving, giving it a pace that encourages you to keep reading.
In time, alliteration has been included more and more in everyday activities.
For example, advertisers and musicians often use alliteration in their works. That’s because sentences and phrases sound more playful and are easier to memorize when they include alliteration. That’s one of the reasons why sometimes a commercial line or a song lyric can get stuck in your head!
Also, alliteration can be used to express a particular emotion to the reader or the listener. For example, you’ll typically feel calm or at peace when you listen to a song that uses soft, smooth sounds. But you’ll feel that agitation when the sounds are harsh or loud.
Many powerful speeches in history have used alliteration to underline the importance of the subject. For example, one of Martin Luther King’s famous speeches used this feature to make people understand that racism should be stopped and people should be treated equally, no matter what:
I dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
The ‘c’ sound is repeated throughout the speech.
How Do You Write Alliteration?
Alliteration can be used anywhere. However, in writing, it’s often found in sayings and poetry.
Alliteration can be an excellent tool for children to try in their creative writing activities to create masterpieces and spark their reader’s attention and interest. They might also fall in love with writing when they see how playful their pieces have become. In addition, this feature can be an excellent opportunity to accentuate ideas and names and make them memorable.
We can use alliteration in different ways, depending on where the repeated sound is.
- Make a mountain out of a molehill.
- Matthew met Michael at the Moor.
In these examples, the repeated sound (‘m’) is in the first letter of the words.
However, alliteration can also be achieved with the first syllable.
- Busy buzzing, the bee behaved beautifully.
This example includes two examples of alliteration. First, while they all begin with the letter ‘b,’ there are two repeated sounds: ‘bu’ and be.’
Alliteration in Everyday Sayings
Some phrases that we use in everyday life contain alliteration. Here are some examples.
- Cream of the crop;
- french fry;
- hit the hay;
- pecan pie;
- super-Size;
- tough talk;
- trick or treat;
- rocky road;
- no-nonsense;
- tough talk;
- quick question;
- picture perfect;
- high heaven;
- busy as a bee;
- dead as a doornail;
- home sweet home;
- living life;
- out of order;
- right as rain.
How to identify Alliteration
The best way to spot alliteration is to read the sentence and listen for the words with identical consonant sounds. This will become more noticeable if read out loud.
How Can Alliteration Be Improved?
Teaching children about alliteration can be tricky. So we thought of some simple ways to teach kids about this topic. Here’s what you can try:
Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down Game:
Ask your pupils to give a thumbs up if the phrase you say includes alliteration and thumbs down if it doesn’t. Contrast the phrases to make the game exciting and to keep them entertained. Emphasize the sounds as much as possible to help them and tell them to repeat the words to underline the alliteration when it is the case.
Movement Game:
If you know, your class likes to move around, dance, or run, take advantage of it. Come up with lines that include alliteration and lines that don’t, and ask them to dance, jump, wiggle or tap their feet for each case. For example, they can jump when you use alliteration and tap their feet when you don’t.
Childish Names Game:
Pick a day of the week and transform it into an alliteration day. Ask your children to call one another using alliterative phrases, such as Creative Caroline or Magical Matt. You can go further and rename all the names of the classes from that day together. They’ll love this day, and maybe they’ll also love alliteration!
I Spy:
Transform this popular game to suit your needs when talking about alliteration. Point to different objects around you and ask children to create a phrase using alliteration based on that object. How many phrases can they think of?
Curriculum-related Alliteration Games:
Include alliteration in any other lesson you’re teaching. For example, are you learning about animals in science? Pick an animal and ask the children to create alliterations starting with this word. You’re in reading class, and you’re focusing on a story? Why not ask them to underline some alliteration in it? The more naturally you include this topic in your day, the better they’ll understand it.
