What does enallage mean?
Enallage is a term from classical rhetoric denoting the substitution of one grammatical form for another — a change in case, number, person, tense, or mood — usually for expressive or stylistic effect. Familiar examples include colloquial constructions like 'we was' instead of 'we were', poetic shifts such as addressing a dead author in the present tense, or advertising copy that trades correct grammar for punchiness, as in 'Them's the breaks'. The word comes from Greek enallage, meaning 'exchange' or 'interchange', reflecting the swap of forms that lies at the heart of the device. Today enallage appears mainly in scholarly discussions of rhetoric, poetry, and linguistics rather than everyday speech, and it sits in an interesting grey zone: when the substitution is deliberate, it reads as wit or voice; when unintentional, it is simply an error. Knowing the term gives critics and writers a precise way to name that distinction.
nounA rhetorical or grammatical figure in which one grammatical form is substituted for another, such as a pronoun in the wrong case, a singular for a plural, or one tense for another, often to expressive effect.
- A rhetorical device in which one grammatical form — such as a case, number, tense, or person — is deliberately substituted for another, as in colloquial 'we was' or poetic tense shifts.
"The poet's line 'Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour' is sometimes cited as an example of enallage, shifting tense for dramatic effect."
"Critics have long noted the enallage in Hamlet's aside, where the prince slips between singular and plural pronouns."
"The slogan's charm lies partly in its enallage: the deliberate misuse of grammar makes it sound like everyday speech."
Used when discussing multiple instances of the figure, most often in academic writing about rhetoric or literature.
"Medieval lyrics are full of enallages that modern editors quietly correct."
When Shakespeare's Falstaff says 'There is her cousin, an we knew of it' — swapping 'if' for 'an'-style grammar and 'were' for 'is' — he's using a trick so old the Greeks gave it its own name over two thousand years ago.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of enallage
Enallage derives from Greek enallage, meaning 'exchange' or 'interchange', formed from en- ('in') and allassein ('to exchange'), itself related to allos ('other'). The term was used by ancient rhetoricians to describe grammatical substitutions and passed into Latin scholarly usage before entering English, where it has been attested since roughly the early seventeenth century. It shares its root with other words built on the Greek alla-/allo- element of 'otherness', such as allegory and allomorph.
How enallage is actually used
A technical term confined almost entirely to rhetoric, classical scholarship, linguistics, and literary criticism; it is rarely encountered in general conversation. Because the substitution is typically intentional or expressive, enallage differs subtly from a mere grammatical error, though the boundary can be blurry.
Easily confused with enallage
An analogy is a comparison between two things to explain an idea, whereas enallage is the substitution of one grammatical form for another within an utterance.