Comparing and contrasting your weeks

Comparing and contrasting your weeks

Work together for seven minutes to find (real) similarities and differences about your week and fill as many of the gaps below as you can. You can’t use the same sentence twice, but if you can find a sentence below that means (basically) the same thing, you can use that instead. You get one point for each sentence that only your group has completed.

_________________ considerably _________________ er _______________________

 

_____________________________ far fewer __________________________________

 

_____________________________ much less _________________________________

 

______________________________ approximately the same ____________________

 

______________________________ both _____________________________________

 

______________________________. In contrast, _______________________________

_______________________________ almost identical __________________________

 

_______________________________ very similar ______________________________

 

__________________________________, whereas ____________________________

 

_____________________________completely different ___________________________

There was a slight difference ______________________________________________

 

_________________not quite as _________________ as ________________________

 

_______________________ nearly as ________________ as _____________________

 

______________________________________ exactly the same ___________________

 

______________________________________ totally identical ____________________

 

Neither __________________ nor ___________________________________________

 

___________________________________ substantially better ____________________

 

____________________________________ quite a lot worse _____________________

 

We had _____________________________________________________ in common.

 

_______________________________approximately twice as many _________________

 

______________________________ about three times as much ___________________

Turn over if you need some ideas for topics.

Possible topics

• Arts and media
• Energy
• English
• Exercise
• Feelings
• Food and drink
• Free time
• Health/ Healthiness
• Money
• Routines
• Sleep/ Tiredness
• Smoking
• Stress
• Studies
• Time with friends/ family
• Travel
• Work

 

Were there any sentences above you couldn’t complete? Ask another group or the class for their examples. Is the same thing true of your group?

 

Language tasks

Which words and expressions above mean (basically) the same?

 

Can you think of any other ways of saying any of those things?

 

Can you think of other ways of saying (basically) the same as the other sentences?

 

What are the differences between these expressions?

• Quite a lot bigger/ A lot bigger
• Whereas/ In contrast
• Less/ Fewer
• Both/ Neither

 

Why can’t you use these phrases in the exercise on the last page? How are their meanings different from each other, and different from other expressions on the first page?

• On the contrary
• On the other hand

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Suggested answers

considerably/ substantially/ quite a lot …er

far more…/ much more…/ a lot more…

approximately/ about/ around/ more or less

not quite as… as/ nearly as…as/ almost as… as

whereas/ but/ However

completely different/ totally different

exactly the same/ totally identical

have … in common/ share…

• Quite a lot bigger/ A lot bigger – the latter is a bigger difference
• Whereas/ In contrast – the latter is only used for a big difference
• Less/ Fewer – less + uncountable noun or adjective/ fewer + countable noun+s
• Both/ Neither – the latter means both are negative

 

• On the contrary – means the previous statement isn’t true
• On the other hand – weighing up both sides to come to a conclusion