Some rhetorical tools take years to master. This is not one of them. Alliteration is gloriously simple, and the moment you start using it your language gains something it did not have before: more flow, more melody, and more force.
So what is it, really? Put as plainly as I can: whenever words that follow one another begin with the same sound or the same letter, you have an alliteration. That is the whole rule. It is why Coca Cola is an alliteration and Pepsi Cola is not. Once you notice the pattern, you will start hearing it everywhere, in brand names, in book titles, in the lines that somehow lodge themselves in your memory.
A couple of examples worth hearing
If you want to feel the full power of the figure, watch the opening monologue from the film V for Vendetta. It is a torrent of words all beginning with the same letter, and it is genuinely mesmerising. Watch it once with the sound alone, then again reading the words on the page, and notice how the rhythm carries you along almost against your will.
Comedy loves the same trick. There are sketches built almost entirely on a single letter, where the joke is partly the meaning and partly the sheer musicality of all those matching sounds tumbling out one after another. That is alliteration doing quiet, playful work.
So here is my invitation to you. Next time you write an opening line, a title, or a phrase you really want people to remember, try letting two or three words share the same sound. It costs you nothing, and it gives your language a little music that the ear simply cannot ignore.
Want to become a better presenter?
This is a short piece from David's knowledge bank. To go deeper, the best places are a keynote, a course, or one to one coaching.