Question

Identify the figure of speech in the following sentence:
Her diary was the person she whispered to in secret.
a. Apostrophe
b. Synecdoche
c. Simile
d. Personification

Answer 1

Hint: In the question, the subject is treating the diary as though it is a living being and not an inanimate object. Try to understand the figure of speech with this clue.

Complete step by step solution: In the given question we have to identify the figure of speech from the given sentence. A figure of speech refers to a word or phrase that has a meaning separate from its literal definition.
The part of the sentence that fits this description is the phrase ‘she whispered to in secret’.
Let us take a look at the given options and find the suitable option.
Option ‘A’, apostrophe, refers to a punctuation mark that is used to indicate possession or omission of letters and numbers.
Option ‘B’, synecdoche, refers to a figure of speech where a word that represents a part is used to represent a whole.
Option ‘C’, simile, refers to a figure of speech where one thing is compared with another entirely different thing, in order to describe better.
Options ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ are incorrect as they are not used in the given sentence.
Therefore, the correct answer is option ‘D’, personification. It refers to attributing a human character to something that is non-human. In the given sentence, the speaker is whispering to the diary, which is a human character.

Note: It should be noted that the definition of figure of speech sounds similar to that of idioms, but idioms are a kind of figure of speech.