Alliteration vs. Consonance: What’s the Difference?

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Alliteration and consonance are related, with consonance being a specific type of alliteration. Alliteration repeats sounds between words, while consonance specifically repeats consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words. Both are used to create rhythm and structure in writing, with assonance being another form of repetition using vowel sounds.

Alliteration and consonance are related ideas, with the main difference between them being that consonance is a specific type of alliteration. Alliteration refers to the repetition of sounds between two or more sequential words in a particular line of poetry or prose sentence which creates an association between these words and creates a pleasing pattern of sounds. There are basically two types of alliteration in English: assonance and consonance. Although both alliteration and consonance refer to sounds repeated between words, alliteration can refer to vowel or consonant sounds usually found at the beginning of each word, and consonance specifically refers to the repetition in consonant sounds that occur often found in the middle or at the end of each word.

Both alliteration and consonance are poetic or linguistic devices often used by writers to give a written work a particular rhythm or structure and to make works more pleasing to the ear when read aloud. These devices are often used by poets and writers of children’s stories, as their effect when read aloud is an almost song-like quality. The difference between these two devices is quite simple and basically boils down to the type of sound repeated between words, although the position of the sound can also be used to distinguish them.

In writing, alliteration refers to any type of sound repeated between two or more words in a particular passage. This is usually found at the beginning of a word, although this is not always the case, and can clearly be seen in a line such as “limping and humiliated, the hound bowed his head and stooped home” where the “h” sound repeats itself between several words. In this usage, the repetition gives the line a natural rhythm that propels the reader forward through the line.

Consonance is basically a particular form of alliteration where the repeated sound is a consonant. Further differentiation between alliteration and consonance can come from establishing that alliteration refers to repeated sounds at the beginning of each word, while consonance refers to repeated consonant sounds in the middle or at the end of words. This is not an absolute rule, but it is accepted as a general way to separate the two ideas. An example of a consonance would be “the bright scent of mint,” as the “t” sound is repeated at the end of each word.

Along with alliteration and consonance there is a third form of repetition between words, which is assonance. Assonance is another type of alliteration and is basically the same as consonance, except for repeated vowel sounds in the middle and at the end of sequential words. “My eye for a cake” is an example of assonance, as the “I” sound is repeated in each word, which also creates a rhyme.




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