Do you know what an onomatopoeia is?

Hey everybody!

Today we are going to look at onomatopoeia. Say what?
While the spelling and pronunciation of this interesting word may be quite difficult, the learning of onomatopoeia examples certainly aren’t.

Basically, onomatopoeia is defined as a word which imitates the natural sound of things.
It creates a sound effect of the “thing” being described. Still confused? Don’t be!

Let us delve a little deeper into this concept, by looking at some examples.

Firstly, if we look at the following sentence we can better understand the function.

“The dripping water from my roof ruined my wooden flooring”
(drip is the sound of falling water)

“The water which was falling from the roof ruined my flooring”

As you can see the first sentence is describing both the sound that water makes “drip” and also the action of it falling onto the bed. This is a sentence containing onomatopoeia.

The second sentence is more direct and expresses the action in a less poetic way.

Let’s have a look at a few more examples so you can practise them at home!

“The best part about playing drums is that you can bang on the very hard”
(bang is the sound it makes when hitting something)

“I love the chirping of the birds in the morning”
(chirping is the sound a bird makes)

“Carol saw the flag flapping in the wind”
(flap is the sound something makes when blowing in the wind, normally a material)

“The boy slurped down his drink before entering the class”
(slurp is the sound something makes when sucking up a liquid quickly)

“Last night I heard a loud knocking on the door”
(knock is the sound of someone or something hitting on something else)

“Some people believe that the purr of a cat is therapeutic”
(purr is the sound a cat makes when it is happy)

“If you pop the balloon it will explode”
(pop is the sound a balloon makes if it explodes)

“The wheel hissed as the air escaped it”
(hiss is the sound of a snake or escaping air or pressure)

“The church bells go Ding dong every morning”
(the sound of bells hitting each other is ding dong)

And finally there are some sounds which are unmistakable, and they are those of animals.
Here are some of the most common animal sounds which are onomatopoeic words.