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Home » Study Guides » 18 Language Techniques You Must Know
Language techniques are the tools writers use to create effects on the reader. Out of dozens that exist, just 18 actually come up across GCSE and IGCSE English exams. Below you’ll find each one with a plain-English definition, how to spot it, the effect it creates, and a worked example from a real exam text.
Stop wasting time learning random language techniques you’ll never use. The exam boards don’t actually want you to fill your head with loads of fancy techniques. Edexcel, Cambridge, and AQA don’t say which techniques you should know.
So it’s goodbye to anaphora and polysyndeton, hello to a short list of 18 carefully selected language techniques that cover the widest range of literary texts, poems, and language papers. You don’t get marks for naming fancy techniques; you get marks for your analysis of the writer’s ideas.
Below you’ll find the 18 language techniques you actually need to smash a Grade 9 GCSE or IGCSE. Each one comes with: a plain-English definition, how to spot it, what effect it creates, and a worked example from a real exam text. Just like the GCSE examiners love. Easy!
| Technique name and definition | How to spot the technique | How to analyse the technique’s effect |
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Metaphor Definition: When 2 objects or ideas are compared to create a more powerful image of one of them. | How to spot it? Ask yourself: “Is there something in the sentence that isn’t real and is just pretending to be there?” Example: He was a giant on the battlefield. Hint: There’s no real “giant” in the example. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Simile Definition: Like a metaphor, but it uses “like” or “as” to compare. | How to spot it? Look for sentences which compare 2 ideas or objects with the words “like” or “as”. Example: He was like a colossus on the battlefield. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Symbolism Definition: When one idea or object is used to represent other ideas within a text. | How to spot it? Look for something that represents something else metaphorically. Example: The dagger is symbolic of betrayal, guilt, and evil in Macbeth. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Personification Definition: When an object is given human qualities or traits to bring it to life. | How to spot it? Look for an object in a sentence that’s acting in a way that only humans can. Example: The trees whispered in the wind as she crept through the forest. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Juxtaposition Definition: 2 ideas contrasted within a text on purpose. | How to spot it? Look for 2 ideas or words that seem to be intentionally contrasted as opposites. They don’t have to be next to each other in a sentence; they could be in entirely different parts of a text. Example: “The growing divide between the developed world and the developing world” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Mirrored structure Definition: When one half of a sentence or phrase is mirrored (reverse order) in the second half. | How to spot it? Look out for one half of a sentence or phrase mirrored (reverse order) in the second half. Easy. Example: “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Foreshadowing Definition: When one part of a text provides a hint about another part of the text later on. | How to spot it? Look for whenever the writer is providing clues or hints about a character’s development or events later in the text. Example: “Brave Macbeth… unseamed him.” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Emotive language Definition: Keywords that have a lot of emotion. They often are an exaggeration (also known as a hyperbole). | How to spot it? Look for keywords that create powerful emotion in a sentence. Example: “I’m starving!” Tip: This is your “get out of jail free” card because keywords are key precisely because they create emotion. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Wordplay Definition: A word that has many meanings and within a specific sentence it could use many of the meanings. | How to spot it? A word with two or more meanings, and when those meanings could apply to the situation. Example: “And mark in every face I meet, marks of weakness, marks of woe” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Repetition Definition: A repeating word, sentence or idea. | How to spot it? Any idea that is repeated. It does not have to be in the same sentence; it can be in completely different parts of a text. Example: “Out, out, damned spot.” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Rhetorical question Definition: A question that forces audiences to think about the answer. | How to spot it? First clue: look for question marks. Then ask yourself if it is meant to be answered out loud or in the reader’s head. Example: “Who wouldn’t want to help those in need?” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Enjambment Definition: When a poet breaks the line without a punctuation mark. | How to spot it? Where the text of one line from a poem runs on to the next line without any punctuation at the end of the first line. Example: “Into a wilderness, the gait of one / Who finds no path where the path should be.” | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Dramatic irony Definition: When the audience knows something important that a character in the scene does not know. | How to spot it? Look for a moment where the audience has a key fact (because we’ve seen or heard it), but a character on stage clearly doesn’t. Example: Duncan praises Macbeth’s castle, not knowing the Macbeths are about to murder him. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Superlative Definition: A word form that pushes a quality to the extreme: the most or the least of something. | How to spot it? Look for words ending in -est, or the words “most” or “least” placed in front of an adjective. Example: Macbeth is the most terrible tyrant in Scotland. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Imperative Definition: A command form of a verb that tells someone to do something. | How to spot it? Look for a verb at the start of a sentence with no subject in front of it. The hidden subject is “you”. Example: Come, you spirits, unsex me here. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Rhyme, assonance & alliteration Definition: Sound patterns where opening sounds repeat (alliteration), middle vowel sounds echo (assonance), or end sounds match (rhyme). | How to spot it? Read the line aloud. Listen for opening sounds repeating (alliteration), vowels echoing inside words (assonance), or end sounds matching (rhyme). Example: The wild wind whispered. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Triplet Definition: Three similar words, phrases or ideas grouped together for emphasis and rhythm. | How to spot it? Look for three things in a row that do a similar job (three adjectives, three verbs, three short ideas). Often connected with commas. Example: I came, I saw, I conquered. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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Simple short sentence Definition: A very short sentence with one main idea, often much shorter than the sentences around it. | How to spot it? Look for a sentence noticeably shorter than the ones either side. Often 2-5 words, and it makes you pause. Example: Macbeth waits. | Effect and how to analyse it.
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They all mean the same thing. Examiners use slightly different labels for the same toolkit. Cambridge IGCSE calls them “linguistic devices, figurative language and imagery”. Edexcel IGCSE calls them “linguistic and structural devices”. AQA refers to “language” and “methods”. Same techniques, different names. Whichever board you sit, the 18 on this page apply. [ref] [ref] [ref]
There are hundreds. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms lists well over a thousand entries. But you don’t need them all. The exam boards don’t even tell you which to learn. We’ve picked the 18 that actually come up across Edexcel, Cambridge IGCSE and AQA papers, and explained why in the introduction at the top of this page. [ref]
Read the passage twice. On the second read, work through the 18 techniques in order. For each one, ask yourself: “Is it in this text?” The Cambridge IGCSE syllabus says you need to “recognise and respond to linguistic devices, figurative language and imagery”. The fastest way to learn how to spot them is to follow our How to use this grid method while you’re analysing real exam texts. [ref]
Don’t try to memorise the names as a list. Instead, memorise a short example sentence for each one. When the example pops into your head in the exam, the technique name comes back with it. Each of our 18 guides gives you a single worked example that’s easy to remember.
These are the 18 language techniques used in GCSE and IGCSE English exams on Edexcel, Cambridge IGCSE, and AQA. Each one links to a full guide with a plain-English definition, how to spot it, what effect it creates, and a worked example. [ref] [ref] [ref]
For GCSE and IGCSE English on Edexcel, Cambridge IGCSE and AQA, you need to recognise these 18: metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration (with rhyme and assonance), repetition, juxtaposition, foreshadowing, dramatic irony, symbolism, rhetorical question, imperative, emotive language, superlative, triplet, simple short sentence, enjambment, chiasmus (mirrored structure), and wordplay (pun). The full grid on this page covers all 18 in the order our tutors recommend learning them. [ref] [ref] [ref]
Persuasive techniques are the writing tools that push the reader towards a particular point of view. The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (writing around 350 BC in Book 1 of his Rhetoric) said writers persuade in three ways: by sounding trustworthy (ethos), by making the reader feel something (pathos), and by giving a clear argument (logos). In GCSE and IGCSE English, the techniques that do all three are rhetorical questions, emotive language, repetition, triplets, imperatives, and superlatives. We’ve got a dedicated guide coming soon: [TBC: /persuasive-language-techniques-gcse/]. [ref]
Figurative language is language that doesn’t mean exactly what it says. When you read “his eyes blazed”, the writer doesn’t really mean his eyes were on fire. They mean his eyes were full of feeling. Figurative language is also called imagery. That’s the umbrella term we use for the whole group of techniques that paint pictures in the reader’s mind: metaphor, simile, personification, and symbolism. The Cambridge IGCSE syllabus puts them together as “figurative language and imagery”, and BBC Bitesize lists the same techniques under “imagery”. It’s a smaller family inside the bigger category of language techniques. [ref] [ref]
Yes. The same 18 techniques on this page show up in mark schemes for all three boards. Cambridge IGCSE asks students to “recognise and respond to linguistic devices, figurative language and imagery”. Edexcel IGCSE (Assessment Objective 2) asks students to “understand and analyse how writers use linguistic and structural devices to achieve their effects”. AQA expects the same kinds of analysis in its English Language paper. The labels and the quotes change a little. The techniques themselves are identical. [ref] [ref] [ref]
Each of the 18 techniques in the grid above links to its own short guide. Every guide has a plain-English definition, how to spot it in a text, what effect it creates, and a worked example from a real GCSE or IGCSE exam passage. Click any technique name to jump straight to its full guide.
These 18 language techniques are drawn from the official exam-board specifications and the academic authorities below. Each definition is consistent with how examiners use the term in their mark schemes.
The Oxbridge GCSE Tutor’s has guides on everything from poetry and techniques to plays and novels coming out on weekly basis. So have a browse and boost those grades!
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Yes, that’s right! You can book Stephen to be your personal tutor and benefit from all this amazing knowledge!
Ready to experience GCSE revision like never before? Dive into our no-nonsense, engaging tutorials that show exactly how I make complex topics stick.
