Nonreversible word pairs always appear in the same order, e.g., back and forth. It would sound awkward if we read forth and back. For many of us, certain words go together and we will automatically use the correct order. However, nonnative speakers will need to learn nonreversible word pairs.
Common Word Pairs
The following is a list of common word pairs. Collocations are also a good idea to learn if you are a nonnative speaker. These are words commonly used together, e.g., have a headache.
| Adam and Eve | life or death |
| back and forth | lock and key |
| bacon and eggs | lost and found |
| bed and breakfast | man and wife |
| birds and bees | name and address |
| black and white | nice and easy |
| body and soul | null and void |
| bread and butter | peaches and cream |
| bread and water | pen and pencil |
| bricks and mortar | pork and beans |
| bride and groom | pots and pans |
| business and pleasure | prim and proper |
| by and large | profit and/or loss |
| cause and effect | pros and cons |
| cloak and dagger | pure and simple |
| coat and tie | rain or shine |
| coffee and doughnuts | ranting and raving |
| cream and sugar | read and write |
| crime and punishment | right and/or wrong |
| cup and saucer | rise and fall |
| dead or alive | salt and pepper |
| down and out | shirt and tie |
| first and last | shoes and socks |
| fish and chips | short and fat |
| flesh and blood | signed and sealed |
| forgive and forget | slip and slide |
| front and center | soap and water |
| fun and games | sooner or later |
| give and take | stars and stripes |
| ham and eggs | suit and tie |
| hammer and nail | supply and demand |
| hemmed and hawed | sweet and sour |
| high and dry | tall and thin |
| high and low | thick and thin |
| hot and bothered | tossed and turned |
| huffing and puffing | touch and go |
| husband and wife | trial and error |
| in and out | trials and tribulations |
| Jack and Jill | up and/or down |
| knife and fork | wait and see |
| ladies and gentlemen | war and peace |
| law and order | wine and cheese |
If we forgot a word pair, please let us know via our comment form below.
Reader Interactions
Englishbix will help you to learn about some of the non-reversible word pairs. These pair of words will appear in similar order and they go together that can be read in back and forth. These words can be used by English learners to improve their vocabulary.
Below are a few common examples of English word pairs that go together from a to z.
| Adam and Eve | life or death |
| back and forth | lock and key |
| bacon and eggs | lost and found |
| bed and breakfast | man and wife |
| birds and bees | name and address |
| black and white | nice and easy |
| body and soul | null and void |
| bread and butter | peaches and cream |
| bread and water | pen and pencil |
| bricks and mortar | pork and beans |
| bride and groom | pots and pans |
| business and pleasure | prim and proper |
| by and large | profit and/or loss |
| cause and effect | pros and cons |
| cloak and dagger | pure and simple |
| coat and tie | rain or shine |
| coffee and doughnuts | ranting and raving |
| cream and sugar | read and write |
| crime and punishment | right and/or wrong |
| cup and saucer | rise and fall |
| dead or alive | salt and pepper |
| down and out | shirt and tie |
| first and last | shoes and socks |
| fish and chips | short and fat |
| flesh and blood | signed and sealed |
| forgive and forget | slip and slide |
| front and center | soap and water |
| fun and games | sooner or later |
| give and take | stars and stripes |
| ham and eggs | suit and tie |
| hammer and nail | supply and demand |
| hemmed and hawed | sweet and sour |
| high and dry | tall and thin |
| high and low | thick and thin |
| hot and bothered | tossed and turned |
| huffing and puffing | touch and go |
| husband and wife | trial and error |
| in and out | trials and tribulations |
| Jack and Jill | up and/or down |
| knife and fork | wait and see |
| ladies and gentlemen | war and peace |
| law and order | wine and cheese |
Keep exploring Englishbix to learn about minimal pairs used in speech therapy and correlative conjunction pairs.
Quick Links
- Examples of Correlative Conjunctions Pairs
- Final Consonant Deletion Word Pairs
Do your students make a lot of visual errors?
Visual discrimination is a tough for many readers who struggle with decoding. Many of the substitutions I see with my students include words with similar shapes, blends, vowels, or word chunks. I like to dig deeper to find out what TYPE of visual errors the students are making so that I can then help them train their eyes to read more accurately!
Reading Specialists are trained to analyze decoding miscues and determine interventions to address our students’ decoding needs, but this is something classroom teachers can do, too! Exploring informal assessments and interventions to address student needs is even more important now with the new Response to Intervention (RtI) mandates. Classroom teachers are expected to differentiate instruction at a higher-level and implement effective interventions to target student needs.
Here are a few ways to get you started with assessing, tracking, and practicing visual discrimination, tracking, and ACCURACY. Not only could your students make significant gains, but you’ll have valuable data to bring to instructional support meetings, building data days, and parent-teacher conferences!
Assessment with Accuracy Word Pairs
When to Assess
Depending on your student population, you could assess your whole class, or individual students, as needed.
- Fall/Winter/Spring – You can assess every student in the beginning of the year to get a snapshot of your class and create targeted intervention groups for Reading Workshop or Guided Reading. Follow-up with winter and spring “checks” to track achievement and compare accuracy scores.
- As Needed – You can use this assessment to follow-up with a running record (formal or informal) for individual students who make A LOT of visual errors. This will allow you to “dig deeper” and find out their pattern of errors.
How to Assess Visual Errors
- Depending on the grade-level and stamina of the students you’re assessing. You may want to start with just a few word lists. I only do 3-4 word-lists with my second graders in one sitting, but 8-10 with my fifth graders. If I’m interested in getting a comprehensive assessment of ALL word pairs, I’ll break up my assessment over a couple of days.
- Pull one student at a time. Each student will read from the word lists while you mark a word correct (check mark) or incorrect (record the word/s they substituted).
(The downloads, shared below, include split columns for easier assessment and tracking! This was my personal tracking sheet version before I posted it on TpT and TN.)
- After you complete the assessment, count up the number of word pairs the students read automatically (within 3 seconds) and correctly (more than 3 second, including self-corrections). Record the numbers on a tracking sheet. **If using the The Complete Packet for Assessment & Practice, use the tracking sheets and “Student Assessment Profile” to record all the data.
- Once all the corrects are recorded, you’ll want to take a closer look at the visual errors. Use a Miscue Analysis Menu to tally up the # of each type of visual miscue. (Download this FREE menu from my sample assessment packet, also listed below!)
Practice with Accuracy Word Pairs
Once you determine what type of visual errors your students are making, you can use that information to drive your instruction. If your students are substituting incorrect vowels for many of their miscues, you’ll want to review vowel sounds and patterns. If your students are substituting words with incorrect blends, perhaps you’ll want to work on making and breaking sounds with two and three-letter blends. The information you collect will only help you if you choose to use it. Integrate accuracy interventions into your small group instruction or 1:1 conference time with students. Send home practice materials or create Literacy Centers to address common visual discrimination issues in your classroom. You can build opportunities for practice into the structure you already have in place for Guided Reading or Reading Workshop.
Literacy Center Ideas:
- Circle-a-Word – Students circle the visually similar words that are listed in a sentence. (Create sentences on a single page or use laminated sentence strips and have students circle with dry-erase marker.)
- Highlight-a-Letter – Students highlight the differences between the pairs. (Provide printed copies of the word lists they can highlight, or laminate the word lists and have students can go over the letter differences with a dry-erase markers.)
- Write-a-Sentence – Students write visually similar words in a sentence. (Provide students with a list of word pairs and have them create sentences that include BOTH words in the pair. Have them highlight the word pairs after they finish!)
- Write-a-Story – Students write visually similar words in a story, poem, comic, etc. (Provide students with a list of word pairs and have them create a story, poem, comic, or another writing format of their choice using a full LIST of word pairs. Have them highlight the word pairs after they finish!).
- Type-a-Word Pair – Students type similar word pairs. (Provide students with a list of word pairs and have them practice typing them on the computer. If they are computer savvy, they can even bold/italicize, change the font or format the color of the differences between the pairs.)
- Rainbow Writing Pairs – Students use colored pencils to write similar word pairs. (Provide students with a list of word pairs and have them copy over using different colors to write the letters for the word pair differences.)
Additional Activities:
- Speed Drills — Track pace & accuracy in a 1-3 minute assessment (use progress graphs to mark # of accuracy word pairs read correctly for each speed drill)
- Practice Word Lists — Create take-home word list packets or individual keychains
- Board Games — Pair popular board games with “Accuracy Word Pair” cards (cut word lists into rows so that word pairs are displayed on ONE card)
- Power Points/Slideshows — Create individual slideshows for students to use on the computer. Include word pairs that were challenging or read incorrectly and then link them on your website or send them home on a CD-rom. Make changes as students master the tricky word pairs!)
Resources
Check out a 5-page SAMPLE from my newest product, “Accuracy Word Pairs: The Complete Packet for Assessment & Practice.” Interested in the COMPLETE version? Click the image below or click here to download the thumbnail preview!
—
Do you have any additional ideas for practicing visual discrimination, tracking, and accuracy? Post them in the comments section to SHARE!
—
Happy Teaching!
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We’ll assume you’re ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
up and down
start learning
going alternately up and down/variable
to and fro
start learning
going alternately
up and up
start learning
constantly increasing
ups and downs
start learning
troubles, complications, uncertainties
more and more
start learning
increasingly, more frequently
loads and loads
start learning
a lot
odds and ends
start learning
scraps, remnants
on and off
start learning
sometimes, infrequently
now and then
start learning
infrequently, periodically
from time to time
start learning
intermittently, ocassionally
out and about
start learning
well enough to come and go, especially after an illness
black and white
start learning
monochromatic picture, i.e. without colors
black or white
start learning
clear distinction, without any gradation
in black and white
start learning
written down or in print, therefore official
bits and pieces
start learning
things, elements
far and wide
start learning
for a great distance, over a large area
flora and fauna
start learning
plants and animals
give or take
start learning
approximately
plus or minus
start learning
approximately, nearly
more or less
start learning
approximately, roughly
peace and quiet
start learning
tranquillity and freedom from disturbance
pick and choose
start learning
select with great care
sick and tired
start learning
annoyed and tired by reason of excess
sooner or later
start learning
eventually, at some unspecified future time
song and dance
start learning
an elaborate story or effort to explain and justify something, or to deceive and mislead someone
then and there = there and then
start learning
at that precise time and place, on the spot
If you ever need a no-prep, effective, high-level thinking activity for vocabulary, this is the one.
In the Word Pairs vocabulary strategy, students evaluate the connections between pairs of words.
They determine if the words are the same, opposite, go together, or are unrelated.
Let’s look at how it works in a classroom.
? How Does the Word Pairs Strategy Work Exactly?
To use this strategy, the teacher selects words students will analyze.
Give them the words and have them analyze the relationship between the words, keeping in mind that there might be more than one.
The relationship choices are: the same, opposite, go together, and no relation.
This strategy, found in Steven Stahl’s book Word Power: What Every Educator Needs to Know about Teaching Vocabulary, is a low-prep, powerful tool for analyzing words.
You can have them do this by themselves, in pairs, or in small groups.
In the book, Stahl says that students should fill in a chart like the one here:
| Same | Opposite | Go Together | No Relation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| lemon – apple | X | |||
| peninsula – lake | X | |||
| country – nation | X | |||
| acid – base | X |
The problem for me is that my students can often argue multiple points, so I like an additional column that says reasoning or notes. I also allow students to identify more than one relationship.
For example, in the table above, I listed acid-base as opposites, but they are both on the pH scale, so you could definitely argue they go together in that way.
If students want to put a word pair in more than one category, I have them chose a capital X for the category they think is the strongest relationship and a lower case x for the category think is secondary.
In the book, Stahl describes using this strategy with words they’ve been studying, and I think that’s great. However, you don’t need to try pick words because they don’t need to have an obvious connection.
Both finding and forcing relationships have power, so don’t get hung up on making sure that there’s a connection to be found. Your students will surprise you with the connections they find!
? Variations on the Word Pairs Strategy
The strategy Stahl describes is terrific.
I have created a number of variations of it that you can use, too.
- Have the entire class work on the same set of words or have them all work with different groups of words.
- Give them the words in pairs or let them select pairs of words from the set of words you’ve chosen.
- Create different categories for the sort, such as friends, neighbors, enemies, or unknown. The sky’s the limit with this one.
- Write words on popsicle sticks (either real or use some digital selection tool) and have a student draw two sticks and make the comparison. You can do this in teams, if you wish. This is really fun!
- Award certain pairs that are analyzed with particular perception, such as least likely connection, best analysis, most creative use of a word, etc.
- Let students take a group of pairs of words and create four categories to sort them into. (If you like this idea, be sure to check out the Harry Potter Sorting Hat Strategy.)
- Show word pairs on a screen instead of giving them a chart with the words already on it. That way, you can reuse a generic chart, either virtually or on paper.
? What are the Benefits of the Word Pairs Strategy?
The Word Pairs strategy is one of the strategies that supports what research tells us about multiple exposures to vocabulary words. We have to do these multiple exposures in many ways, so this is a great activity to have at the ready.
Stahl says the best part of the activity is the discussion with the entire class, and I’m not sure I agree with him on that. I may be the most interesting and rewarding, but the core power of the activity mentally is that connection the student made.
If you use the Depth and Complexity framework, this is a great activity because it’s not only Language of the Discipline, but also Across Disciplines.
To use it as an Across Disciplines activity, have students analyze the words in one of two ways:
- Compare two words from different fields (compare a triangle to the Allied Powers in WWII), or
- Compare two words from across the same discipline (compare triangle to dodecahedron).
Because it can be done independently, in pairs or in small groups, it’s a nice, flexible activity, as well.
? Wrapping Up:
The Word Pairs strategy is one of my favorites because it’s so flexible.
You can make it a very quick little practice exercise, or you can spend an entire class segment or period on it.
I hope you’ll try it because I think both you and your students will enjoy it and get a lot of benefit out of it. ?
? You May Also Like:
- How to Teach Vocabulary with Depth & Complexity Frames
- How to Use a Linear Array to Teach Vocabulary
- Teaching Using the I Spy Activity
Want to be a Vocabulary Luau insider? Sign up here & grab your free two-page list of vocabulary question stems. I’d love to have you join the party!????