The simplest and most fun way to present synonyms and common confusions. If you like anything here and want more, please support TEFLtastic. 

Seeing some of my old worksheets as I polish up the index pages, I’ve noticed a general trend in the last five years. Most of the old communication games etc could be described as “a bit complicated but (usually) worth the effort” whereas a lot of my present favourites are more “surprisingly worthwhile and stimulating considering how straightforward they are”. This game is the ultimate version of the latter.

The Same or Different?

Students are given pairs of words, phrases or sentences (e.g. “sidewalk/ pavement” or “on the other hand/ in contrast”) and have to work out if (just) the meanings are the same or different. If you give them three or four together (e.g. “opposite/ in front of/ across”), they are either all the same or all different. I find this activity to be generally much better than error correction for important points like false friends and common confusions, and you can use the pairs which are the same to give them a bit more variety in their language or higher level forms.

After they try (often meaning guess) in pairs, you could let them use their dictionaries, e.g. to check a maximum of five items. This is good as it helps them learn how to work out subtle differences between definitions in monolingual dictionaries (plus use example sentences etc to aid with that), and to show the weaknesses of many bilingual dictionaries (e.g. when things that are different are translated the same way).

This is surprisingly absorbing on its own, but you can also turn it into a game. Before seeing the worksheet, students listen and hold up “The same” or “Different” cards that you have given them depending on what they think about the meanings of the pairs (or more) of words, phrases or sentences that they hear. These cards can also be used again later when they test each other in other in groups after doing the worksheet and checking their answers. A couple of the worksheets below have this (optional) part included, and the cards to hold up can be used for any of the others.

The Same or Different? game photocopiable classroom activities

IELTS Listening the same or different simplest responses (in this e-book) – NEW

Numbers in IELTS Listening the same or different (in this e-book) – NEW

Consonant clusters the same or different game 

IELTS Speaking Part One the same or different (in this great value e-book) 

IELTS Speaking Part Three the same or different (in this amazing value e-book) 

Meetings phrases the same or different (in this surprisingly cheap e-book) 

Phrases for the body of the meeting the same or different (in this cheap as anything e-book) 

Starting and ending meetings the same or different (in this cheaper than cheap e-book) 

Describing IELTS maps the same or different (in this superb value e-book) 

IELTS Writing Task One the same or different (in this perfectly priced e-book) 

IELTS Writing Task Two the same or different (in this amazingly reasonable e-book) 

Email enquiries and requests the same or different (in this cheaper than cheap and cheaper than that e-book) 

Email opening and closing the same or different (in this cheap as e-book) 

Group emails the same or different (in this cheap as dirt e-book) 

Presentations language the same or different (in this cheap as… e-book)

Clothes and appearance the same or different

Words with silent letters the same or different (with homophones and minimal pairs)

Dictating on the phone the same or different (in this top value e-book)

Telephoning phrases the same or different game (in this toppest value e-book)

Telephoning the same or different pairwork speaking (in this highly reasonable e-book)

Reporting verbs the same or different

How questions and answers The same or different and (in this sooo cheap e-book)

Reported speech the same or different

Meeting people the same or different (in this sooo sooo cheap e-book)

Social English the same or different (in this soooo very very cheap e-book)

Dates The same or different

Time expressions The same or different

Future forms The same or different (with lots of future time expressions and prepositions of time)

Sentence transformations The same or different (including typical confusions when transforming sentences, with simplest responses warmer game)

Important language for FCE sentence transformations The same or different game

English number the same or different games

Syllables The same or different games

IELTS Speaking Part One The same or different (with questions, vocabulary and functional language)

Storytelling phrases the same or different

Comparing contrasting The same or different

Contrasting phrases The same or different

Advantages and disadvantages phrases The same or different

The language of trends The same or different (common confusions and useful synonyms)

Telephoning The same or different

Academic Word List vocabulary The same or different (page 4 of the worksheets)

Typical  words in academic writing tasks The same or different

Talking about advantages and disadvantages The same or different

Describing maps and directions The same or different

HR vocabulary The same or different?

Opinions The same or different?

IELTS Writing The same or different?

Academic English The same or different?

Presentations phrases The same or different?

Email opening and closing The same or different?

Numbers The same or different? and answers

Future forms The same or different? (just the first half of it)

Giving examples The same or different? (Just the last exercise)

Expressing cause and effect The same or different (Just the last exercise on the first page)

Expressing purpose The same or different (Just exercise C)

Transport, travel and holidays The same or different and IELTS Speaking

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Updated 3 March 2023