The short version: imagery is language that makes you see, hear or feel a scene, not just read about it.
Your senses do this without asking.
Read the word ‘lemon’ and your mouth reacts before you decide to. Read ‘nails on a chalkboard’ and you flinch. Writers pick words that trigger your senses — that's imagery.
Here's how to spot it, sense by sense:
How to spot it — one clear example each
Sight & colour
Words that make you see it: ‘the sky bruised purple over the rooftops.’ ‘Bruised purple’ paints an exact, wounded colour.
Sound
Words that make you hear it: ‘the gate shrieked on its rusted hinge.’ ‘Shrieked’ lets you hear the sharp, painful noise.
Touch, smell & taste
Words for the body's senses: ‘the cold coin bit her palm; the air tasted of rust and rain.’ You feel and taste the scene.
The key move: Name the sense the words appeal to (sight, sound, touch, smell, taste), quote the image, and say what it makes the reader picture or feel.
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Why it matters in the exam: Imagery analysis works when you name the sense and the feeling. Say ‘this appeals to sound and makes the place feel eerie’, quoting the words — don't just write ‘the writer uses lots of imagery’.
Analyse the imagery: “The market hit her all at once — the shout of sellers, the sting of chilli in the air, the slippery cool of fish on ice under her hand.”
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Watch out: Don't just say ‘vivid imagery’. Name the sense it appeals to and the feeling it builds — that's what matters.