What is the difference between an idiom and a metaphor?

A metaphor is a comparison a writer makes up, like calling a quiet library a cave. An idiom is a saying everyone already shares, like bite the bullet, and you have to learn what it means because the words alone won't tell you. Many idioms started out as metaphors long ago.

How can you tell personification from a metaphor?

Look at what happens to the thing. If it does something only people do, like a clock that worries, it's personification. If the line says it is something else, like a clock that is the heartbeat of the kitchen, it's a metaphor.

6th grade figurative language

6th grade figurative language worksheets

Sixth grade figurative language worksheets mix seven figures of speech: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, idiom, onomatopoeia and alliteration. The lines are longer than in fifth grade. Ideas act like people, metaphors are often implied instead of stated with is, and the idioms are ones sixth graders meet in novels. Students write the name of the figure each line uses.

Free printable PDF worksheet, aligned to Common Core L.6.5.a.

Each print is a different sheet with its own answer key. You don't need to sign up.

The kind of sentences you'll fix

Write the name of the figure of speech each line uses. Choose from the words in parentheses.

Marcus mixed milk, melted margarine and maple syrup in a metal measuring cup. This line uses (alliteration / metaphor / personification).
Fixed: Marcus mixed milk, melted margarine and maple syrup in a metal measuring cup. This line uses alliteration.
Grandma’s spice drawer is an atlas of flavors from every country she has visited. This line uses (alliteration / metaphor / simile).
My brother’s closet holds so many shoes that it would take a hundred years to count them. This line uses (alliteration / hyperbole / personification).

Every print pulls a new set of sentences at this level, so a make-up test or a second sibling gets a different mix.

What's on a 6th grade sheet

6th grade sheets draw from 60 sentences, 8 to a page. None of these sentences are on 5th grade sheets.

A few of the sentences:

During the game of tag, Maya zigzagged across the yard like a rabbit escaping a fox.
From the airplane, the winding river was a silver thread laid across the brown valley.
The town’s Fourth of July parade had so many floats that it lasted until Thanksgiving.

Write the figure. Write the name of the figure of speech each line uses. Choose from the words in parentheses. 8 sentences to fix per page.
Which figure?. Circle the letter of the figure of speech each line uses. 10 questions per page.

Every version prints on US Letter or A4, with its answer key on the last page.

How to teach this

The hard pairs at this grade are personification and metaphor, and idiom and metaphor. For the first, ask whether the line calls a thing something else or has it act like a person. For the second, ask whether the phrase is a saying you'd find in an idiom dictionary. Once your student has the name, ask the next question a reading test will ask: what does the line really mean, and why did the writer say it this way?

Watch for: A sound word is not personification. A door that creaks is onomatopoeia, because doors really do creak. A printer that refuses to print is personification, because refusing is something people do. Like and as only make a simile when two different things are compared. My shoes are like yours compares two pairs of shoes, so it is not a simile. Alliteration follows the first sound, not the first letter. Kai's cat climbed repeats one k sound, but cold cereal does not, because the c in cereal sounds like s.

Common questions about 6th grade figurative language

What is the difference between an idiom and a metaphor?: A metaphor is a comparison a writer makes up, like calling a quiet library a cave. An idiom is a saying everyone already shares, like bite the bullet, and you have to learn what it means because the words alone won't tell you. Many idioms started out as metaphors long ago.
How can you tell personification from a metaphor?: Look at what happens to the thing. If it does something only people do, like a clock that worries, it's personification. If the line says it is something else, like a clock that is the heartbeat of the kitchen, it's a metaphor.

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Aligned to Common Core L.6.5.a. Reviewed by the One more sheet team. Content version 241, updated October 2026.

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