Which term refers to giving human traits to nonhuman things?

• A. Personification
• B. Alliteration
• C. Metaphor
• D. Parallelism

Answer: (A)

Personification is the figure of speech that gives human traits to something that isn’t human. It helps readers see nonhuman things as if they had thoughts, feelings, or actions, creating vivid imagery and emotional resonance. For example, saying the wind whispered through the trees or the sun smiled down on the city makes the natural world feel alive and relatable. Alliteration focuses on repeating sounds, not on attributes of things. Metaphor draws a direct comparison between two things, which can convey meaning vividly but doesn’t inherently assign human qualities to nonhuman things. Parallelism deals with the balance and rhythm of sentence structure rather than attributing human characteristics.