Figures of speech: types, examples, and what they mean for translation

What are figures of speech?

Figurative language is everywhere in human communication, yet it is often invisible until you try to move it across a language boundary.

A figure of speech is a word or phrase used in a way that departs from its literal meaning to create a particular effect, image, or emphasis. Figures of speech include devices such as metaphor, simile, hyperbole, irony, and idiom. They are found in every language on earth, and while the underlying concepts they express are often universal, the words chosen to express them rarely are.

For translators, this gap between concept and expression is one of the most demanding aspects of the job.

In this article:

1. What are figures of speech?
2. The 24 main types of figures of speech
3. Why figures of speech are difficult to translate
4. How AI handles figurative language
5. Cross-language examples: the same idea, expressed differently
6. Frequently asked questions

The 24 main types of figures of speech

These are the figures of speech that appear most frequently in English and across world languages. Each entry notes the translation implication, the reason a professional translator needs to recognize the device, not just understand it.

1. Alliteration — repetition of consonant sounds at the start of nearby words ("Peter Piper picked a peck"). Creates rhythm and memorability in marketing, branding, and poetry. In translation, finding an equivalent sound pattern in the target language often requires creative adaptation rather than direct transfer.

2. Antithesis — juxtaposition of two contrasting ideas in parallel structure ("one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind"). Common in speeches and political rhetoric. Parallel structure rarely maps cleanly between languages with different word orders.

3. Apostrophe — direct address to an absent person, abstract idea, or object ("O Death, where is thy sting?"). Used in poetry and dramatic writing. Translators must preserve the tone of direct address, which varies in register across languages.

4. Circumlocution — a roundabout way of expressing something to avoid naming it directly. Used in diplomacy, bureaucratic writing, and literature. In translation, the degree of indirectness expected varies significantly by culture and context.

5. Epigram — a witty, concise, and often paradoxical statement ("I can resist everything except temptation"). The humor depends on compression and surprise. Epigrams often require complete rewriting rather than translation to preserve their effect.

6. Euphemism — replacing a harsh term with a gentler one ("passed away" instead of "died"). Every language has its own inventory of euphemisms, and they are rarely equivalent. A direct translation of a source-language euphemism may sound clinical or offensive in the target language.

7. Hyperbole — deliberate exaggeration for effect ("I could eat a horse"). Common in casual speech and marketing. Hyperboles are culturally specific, the same degree of exaggeration lands differently across cultures.

8. Irony — expressing a meaning contrary to the literal words. Irony is one of the hardest devices to carry across languages. Tone, register, and cultural context all determine whether irony reads as intended or is taken literally.

9. Litotes — understatement using a negative to affirm a positive ("not bad" meaning "good"). Particularly common in British English. Translating litotes requires recognizing the understatement and finding a cultural equivalent in the target language.

10. Metaphor — describing one thing as another to highlight a similarity ("Time is a thief"). Metaphors are embedded in everyday language and often go unnoticed. Many are also dead metaphors (so familiar that speakers no longer process them figuratively) which complicates translation.

11. Metonymy — using a closely associated term in place of the thing itself ("suits" for business executives). Metonyms are culturally contingent. The substitution only works if the target audience shares the same cultural association.

12. Onomatopoeia — words that imitate natural sounds ("buzz," "sizzle," "crash"). Sound words are language-specific: what sounds like "bow-wow" in English is "wan-wan" in Japanese and "ouaf-ouaf" in French. These require substitution, not translation.

13. Oxymoron — combining two contradictory terms ("deafening silence," "jumbo shrimp"). The effect depends on the perceived contradiction being immediately apparent in the target language, which is not guaranteed.

14. Paradox — a statement that appears contradictory but reveals a deeper truth ("less is more"). Translating paradoxes requires ensuring the tension still reads as surprising in the target language.

15. Personification — attributing human qualities to animals, objects, or ideas ("the wind whispered"). Often embedded in literary translation, personification choices affect the emotional tone of the whole passage.

16. Pleonasm — redundant words used for emphasis ("free gift," "tuna fish"). Some pleonasms are culturally specific and lose their emphasis when translated; others read as errors rather than stylistic choices.

17. Pun — wordplay exploiting multiple meanings or similar-sounding words. Puns are notoriously untranslatable. When the wordplay depends on phonological similarity unique to the source language, translators either explain the pun, create a new one in the target language, or remove it entirely.

18. Simile — comparison using "like" or "as" ("as brave as a lion"). Similes appear translatable but often rely on cultural reference points that do not carry over. "As stubborn as a mule" becomes "head is stiff" in Japanese, the comparison changes because the cultural reference changes.

19. Synecdoche — using a part to represent the whole ("wheels" for a car, "boots on the ground" for soldiers). Synecdoches are culturally embedded and may require explanation or substitution in translation.

20. Understatement — making a situation seem less significant than it is. Cultural norms around understatement vary widely. What reads as dry wit in British English may read as confusion or underreaction in other cultures.

21. Assonance — repetition of vowel sounds within nearby words ("the early bird catches the worm"). Like alliteration, assonance creates sound patterns that do not transfer across languages and require creative adaptation.

22. Transferred epithet — an adjective applied to a noun it does not logically describe ("a sleepless night," where the person is sleepless, not the night). These constructions can confuse machine translation systems, which process modifier-noun relationships literally.

23. Anaphora — repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses (Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I have a dream"). Rhetorical repetition of this kind can be preserved in translation, but the rhythm and emphasis may shift significantly.

24. Chiasmus — reversed parallel structure across two clauses ("Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"). The reversal depends on a specific syntactic relationship that may not be available in all languages.

Why figures of speech are difficult to translate

The difficulty is not just linguistic, it is cultural.

Machine translation systems encounter particular difficulty with idiomatic expressions, as a literal rendering often produces nonsensical or incorrect output. ScienceDirect The same challenge applies to most figures of speech. A metaphor, pun, or euphemism that works in the source language may have no direct counterpart in the target language.

Translators use three main strategies when a figure of speech cannot be transferred directly:

• Substitution: Replace the source-language figure with a target-language figure that conveys the same meaning, even if the wording is entirely different.
• Paraphrase: Abandon the figurative form and express the underlying meaning directly in the target language.
• Compensation: Remove the figure of speech at that point and introduce a comparable effect elsewhere in the passage.

Which strategy to use depends on the text type, the purpose of the translation, and how central the figurative device is to the meaning or effect of the passage. In legal or technical translation, accuracy of meaning takes priority. In literary translation, marketing transcreation, and creative work, preserving the effect (even at the cost of literal fidelity) is often the right call.

Recognizing which device is in play is the first requirement. That is why figures of speech are a core competency for professional translators, not an optional refinement.

How AI handles figurative language

AI translation tools have improved significantly, but figurative language remains one of their most persistent weak points.

Research comparing AI and human translation performance found that even advanced AI models cannot match the proficiency of human translators when figurative or culturally embedded language is involved. Arafa The challenge is structural: AI translation systems typically process text at the sentence level and lack the broader cultural schema needed to recognize when a phrase should not be taken literally.

For translators working with AI tools, this means figurative language requires close review at the post-editing stage. The Translation Quality Assurance Tool and the Consistency Checker can help identify passages where AI output may have processed a figure of speech literally. The Source Text Checker is useful for flagging figurative or ambiguous language before translation begins, reducing downstream review time.

For projects where marketing copy, creative content, or literary translation is involved, the human-in-the-loop remains essential. AI accelerates the workflow; human expertise handles the cultural judgment calls that AI cannot reliably make.

Cross-language examples: the same idea, expressed differently

One of the clearest ways to understand figures of speech is to trace the same concept across several languages. The underlying meaning stays consistent, but the words chosen reveal something about each culture's frame of reference.

Precision / hitting the mark English: Hit the nail on the head. German: Den Nagel auf den Kopf treffen (literally: hit the nail on the head). Both languages use the same carpentry metaphor, an unusual degree of overlap between two otherwise quite different figurative systems.

Something impossible English: When pigs fly. Russian: Когда рак на горе свистнет (literally: when a crayfish whistles on a mountain). Both use an absurd image to express impossibility, but the cultural reference is entirely different.

Something very expensive English: Cost an arm and a leg. French: Coûter les yeux de la tête (literally: to cost the eyes of one's head). English speakers sacrifice limbs; French speakers sacrifice their sight. Each language encodes which body parts are considered most precious.

Something easy English: A piece of cake. Spanish: Ser pan comido (literally: bread to be eaten). Japanese: 朝飯前 (literally: before breakfast). All three link ease to the simple act of eating. The specific food chosen reflects each culture's relationship to everyday staples.

Envy of someone else's situation English: The grass is always greener on the other side. Italian: L'erba del vicino è sempre più verde (literally: the neighbor's grass is always greener). Portuguese: A galinha do vizinho sempre é mais gorda (literally: the neighbor's chicken is always fatter). Italian preserves the lawn metaphor almost exactly. Portuguese shifts to livestock, a different cultural reference point for prosperity.

Anger English: Pissed off. Spanish: Estar hecho un ají (literally: to be made of chili pepper - hot and red). Japanese: 腹が立つ (literally: a person's stomach is standing up). Three cultures, three physiological metaphors. Spanish links anger to heat; Japanese to the stomach; English to a very different bodily function.

Being very poor English: Dirt poor. Portuguese: Sem eira nem beira (literally: without land or roof). Chinese: 一无所有 (literally: nothing at all). English uses a single concrete image. Portuguese specifies exactly what a poor person lacks. Chinese reduces the concept to its most absolute form.

Accepting something unpleasant but unchangeable English: It is what it is. Italian: Alla come viene, viene (literally: to how it comes, it comes). Portuguese: Pão pão queijo queijo (literally: bread bread cheese cheese). The Italian expression is abstract and open-ended. The Portuguese version is entirely concrete, what is bread is bread; what is cheese is not bread. The same resignation, in completely different registers.

These comparisons matter in translation practice. A translator who recognizes that pão pão queijo queijo expresses the same idea as it is what it is can produce an equivalent that reads naturally in English. A translator who attempts a literal rendering ("bread bread cheese cheese") produces something that reads as an error rather than an expression.

For translators working across multiple language pairs, a Key Terms Glossary can help document agreed-upon equivalents for recurring figurative expressions across projects, reducing inconsistency and review time. The full suite of free Tomedes translation support tools is available at tomedes.com/tools.

Frequently asked questions

1. What is a figure of speech?
A figure of speech is a word or phrase used in a non-literal way to create a particular effect. Common types include metaphor, simile, hyperbole, irony, and idiom. Figures of speech are present in every language, though the specific expressions used vary widely across cultures.

2. Why are figures of speech hard to translate?
They rarely have direct equivalents in other languages. A figure of speech depends on cultural associations, phonological patterns, or historical usage that may not exist in the target language. Translators typically substitute, paraphrase, or compensate rather than translate literally.

3. Can AI translate figures of speech accurately?
AI translation has improved but consistently struggles with idioms, metaphors, and other figurative language. Most AI systems process text at the sentence level and lack the cultural context needed to recognize figurative use. Human review remains necessary for any text where figurative language is significant.

4. What is the difference between a metaphor and a simile?
Both compare two things, but a simile uses "like" or "as" ("as brave as a lion"), while a metaphor makes the comparison directly ("courage is a lion"). In translation, both require cultural substitution when the reference point does not exist in the target language.

5. What is transcreation, and when is it used?
Transcreation is the adaptation of content across languages with the goal of preserving effect, tone, and intent rather than literal meaning. It is most commonly used for marketing copy, slogans, and creative content where a direct translation would lose its impact. Most figurative language in marketing requires transcreation rather than standard translation.

6. What translation strategy works best for puns?
Puns that rely on sound similarity unique to the source language cannot be directly translated. Translators either create a new pun in the target language that conveys a similar tone, paraphrase the meaning, or remove the pun and compensate elsewhere. The right choice depends on how central the wordplay is to the passage.

Translating figurative language accurately requires more than bilingual fluency. It requires cultural competence, contextual judgment, and an understanding of when a phrase means something entirely different from its literal words. For projects where idioms, metaphors, or creative language are central to the text, Tomedes works with subject-matter expert linguists across 240+ languages to ensure that meaning carries across, not just words.