Alliteration is a fancy way of saying words that start with the same sound, like “Sally sells seashells by the seashore.” It’s a fun way to make sentences sound catchy and memorable. In this article, we’ll talk about everything you need to know about alliteration and how it is different from consonance and assonance.
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What Is Alliteration?
Alliteration, a literary device, adds rhythm, melody, and emphasis to your text by repeating the same letter at the beginning of words. This can either be two words close to each other or extend to be a whole sentence. Brands have found it helps with recall (think of brands like PayPal, TikTok, or Coca-Cola).
Examples of alliteration:
- Breaking Bad
- Dunkin Donuts
- Best Buy
- Krispy Kreme
- Beauty and the Beast
- Zebras zig and zebras zag
- Fresh fried fish, fish fried fresh
- Range Rover
- Bed, Bath, and Beyond
- Manic Monday
- King Kong
- Taco Tuesday
If you want to get a feel of how alliteration works in literature, read Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven:
"Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary."You can also check William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet:
"The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry."Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is also a great read:
"The fair breeze blew, The white foam flew, And the furrow followed free. We were the first to ever burst into the silent sea."Fun fact: Martin Luther King’s I Have a Dream speech also has alliteration.
Why Use Alliteration?
If you want to “wake up” or make a long-lasting impression on your readers, then alliteration is one tool in your belt. Since this literary device can draw attention to specific words or ideas (by deliberately repeating sounds), it can evoke emotions and allow writers to resonate with their readers on a deeper level.
Where and When to Use Alliteration?
The good thing about alliteration is that you can use it not only in creative writing. You can use it in nursery rhymes, poems, song lyrics, comic books, movies, slogans, sayings, idioms, and more. Even character names (alliterative names):
- Lois Lane
- Peter Parker
- Spongebob Squarepants
- Donald Duck
- Mickey Mouse
In short, whenever you want to make your piece attention-grabbing, catching, and interesting to readers, you can use alliteration.
You can find a longer form of alliteration with tongue twisters, phrases that are difficult to say due to the repeated sounds at the beginning of each word.
Tongue twister alliteration examples
- How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
- Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.
You might have also heard of alliteration’s cousin, onomatopoeia, which operates under the same principle – to make readers hear the piece instead of just reading the piece.
Onomatopoeia involves using the sound something makes to give its name. Bees buzz, water drip drips, and chicks chirp. All of these are alliteration and onomatopoeia working together to provide you with not just a mental image but sound as well. Make note, however, that you don’t need to use these two together.
How to Use Alliteration?
Some alliteration may come naturally, but if you are reading your paper and want to add a little more oomph then use these tips.
Try selecting a few relevant words and phrases that relate to your writing, then search for others with the same beginning sound. Once you have those, you can slip them into your work at any point you feel is needed.
You can also search for parts of your writing that have two descriptors attached and change them to match beginning sounds.
For example, “After running away, she tried to quiet her loud and heavy breathing.” With alliteration it can become:
"After running away, she tried to quiet her loud and labored breathing." Alliteration, Consonance, and Assonance: What’s the Difference?
Alliteration, consonance, and assonance all involve repeated sounds, but where those sounds appear is what makes them different.
As mentioned earlier, alliteration uses the initial consonant sound in multiple words. On the other hand, consonance also has repeated consonant sounds, but unlike alliteration, it can appear anywhere – start, middle, or end.
Lastly, assonance is what your typical rhymes use. In fact, it is sometimes called “vowel rhyme!” This is where the vowel sounds of the given words are the same (or produce the same sound) while the consonants may differ, like the phrase “no pain, no gain.”
Final Thoughts
Fiction, non-fiction, or poetry can all benefit from the use of alliteration because the repetition adds rhythm, emphasis, and even musical appeal. However, remember to balance alliteration with other literary devices for maximum impact.
