在英语语法中，关于比喻的修辞手法大致有四种，分别是明喻，暗喻，提喻以及借喻。学会这几种比喻的修辞手法，对英语文章的写作和英语阅读理解大有帮助。
首先是明喻（Simile）：
明喻是将具有共性的不同事物作对比。这种共性存在于人们的心里，而不是事物的自然属性。
标志词常用 like, as, seem, as if, as though, similar to, such as等。通过明喻，作者能够通过读者熟悉的对象更加生动形象地了解不熟悉的对象，从而表达出作者的特定情感或者态度(mood or attitude)。请看以下例子：
Wit without learning is like a tree without fruit.
I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Einstein only had a blanket on, as if he had just walked out of a fairy tale.
The check fluttered to the floor like a bird with a broken wing.
He is in the kitchen like a duck to water.
He was like a cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.
I wandered lonely as a cloud.
Einstein only had a blanket on, as if he had just walked out of a fairy tale.
暗喻（Metaphor）：
暗喻与明喻非常类似，也是讲具有某个共同特征的两个不同事物联系在一起，但是不用as，as…as，as if，like，seem等的比喻词。与明喻相似，隐喻能把描述的对象更形象的呈现给读者。因为不使用比喻词，所以通常我们会更加关注与隐喻背后的引申义，而不是仅仅是它的字面义。
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.
Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
The sunshine of happiness is made up of very little beams.
Money is a bottomless sea, in which honor, conscience, and truth may be drowned.
借喻（Metonymy）：
以喻体来代替本体，本体和喻词都不出现，直接把甲（本体）说成乙（喻体）。借喻由于只有喻体出现，所以能产生更加深厚、含蓄的表达效果，同时也使语言更加简洁。
The kettle boils. 水开了。
The room sat silent. 全屋人安静地坐着。
Lend me your ears, please. 请听我说。
a complete Shakespeare 莎士比亚全集
I had the muscle, and they made money out of it.
我有力气，他们就用我的力气赚钱。
提喻（Synecdoche）
提喻用部分代替全体，或用全体代替部分，或特殊代替一般。
There are about 100 hands working in his factory.
他的厂里约有100名工人。
He is the Newton of this century.
他是本世纪的牛顿。
The fox goes very well with your cap.
这狐皮围脖与你的帽子很相配。
