Literal and Nonliteral Meanings of Word and Phrases Worksheets - Free Printable

Let’s read the story carefully and find what each character means by their words.

The story is about Henry, his dad, and a fishing trip. They go to a lake, but it starts raining. Henry gets upset because he thinks the trip is ruined. His dad tries to cheer him up by saying things like “We can still have fun” and “Fishing in the rain is an adventure.” But Henry doesn’t believe him — he just wants to go home.

Later, when they’re driving back, Henry sees a rainbow and feels better. He realizes that even though the day didn’t go as planned, it turned out okay.

Now let’s look at the two columns: Phrase and Meaning.

We need to match phrases from the story with what they really mean (not just the literal words).

Here are the phrases we should focus on:

1. “This isn’t how I pictured our day.”
→ Henry says this when it starts raining. He’s disappointed. He imagined a sunny, perfect fishing day. So this means: *Things didn’t go the way I expected.*

2. “Fishing in the rain is an adventure!”
→ Dad says this to make Henry feel better. He’s trying to turn a bad situation into something exciting. So this means: *Even if things don’t go as planned, you can still enjoy them.*

3. “I just want to go home.”
→ Henry says this when he’s upset. He’s not having fun anymore. He wants to stop the trip. So this means: *I’m unhappy and want to leave.*

4. “Look at that rainbow!”
→ Henry says this near the end, after the rain stops. He’s surprised and happy. It shows he’s starting to see the good side of the day. So this means: *Something beautiful happened — maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all.*

5. “Maybe today wasn’t such a disaster.”
→ This is Henry’s final thought. He changed his mind. He realized the day was okay. So this means: *I was wrong to think everything went badly.*

Now let’s write these matches clearly.

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Final Answer:
1. “This isn’t how I pictured our day.” → Things didn’t go the way I expected.
2. “Fishing in the rain is an adventure!” → Even if things don’t go as planned, you can still enjoy them.
3. “I just want to go home.” → I’m unhappy and want to leave.
4. “Look at that rainbow!” → Something beautiful happened — maybe the day wasn’t so bad after all.
5. “Maybe today wasn’t such a disaster.” → I was wrong to think everything went badly.