On the basis of questionnaire responses, this research paper aims to compare the use of metaphor by on the one hand, a group of Spanish civil engineering students and on the other hand, a group of professional civil engineers. It has been shown that metaphor use is slightly more frequent in the case of students (18% vs. 10%). The types of metaphor used have been classified into three main groups: the first one is related to the notion of shape (butterfly, eye), the second one is connected to other disciplines (DNA), and the third group contains miscellaneous metaphors (McDonald’s). Also, specific metaphors (e.g. fan, harp, saddle) are more common among engineers (40% vs. 25%) whereas students prefer non-specific metaphors (e.g. fish mouth, sailboat; 50% vs. 20%).