What is paraphrasing?

Consider the two sentences below.

Can you see that both sentences express the same meaning, although the words used are different?

This is called paraphrasing. By using different words to express the same piece of information, paraphrasing can change the intensity, certainty, and logical conclusion of the expression.

The three sentences above are paraphrases of each other. All three sentences mean "I need food".

However, unlike example sentences 1 and 2, these three sentences also convey different intensities. This is because of the words being used: hungry, starving, and famished.

In typical usage, the word "starving" is used to express a strong hunger, whereas "famished" is used to express an even stronger hunger.

It is important to remember that paraphrases are not all the same, and they can differ in the intensity of their meaning.

Paraphrases can also convey different certainties. In example sentences 6 and 7, both convey the meaning "I need food". However, in example sentence 7, the writer is less certain about his/her hunger compared to example sentence 6.

We can tell the difference because of the verb phrase "I guess" used in sentence 7, which is an expression used when something is true or likely but is not certain.

Thus in addition to intensity, paraphrases can also differ in the certainty of their meaning.

Lastly, paraphrases can also be used to convey logical conclusions. Example sentence 9 is a logical conclusion of example sentence 8, even though sentence 8 does not explicitly state that the writer prepared a meal in the kitchen or that he ate it.

In other words, we can logically conclude that the writer took some food, prepared it, and ate it in example sentence 9 because he was hungry, based on the information given in example sentence 8.

In the Linguaskill General Reading & Listening test, paraphrasing is primarily used to test your ability to understand the information expressed in the question.

The following examples demonstrate how paraphrasing is used to this effect in both Reading- and Listening-type questions.

Did you find the answers to the example Reading question confusing? If you did, here are the reasons why.

1. In the example Reading question above, paraphrasing is used to construct all three answers based on the Notice. This is done through the use of similar words that appear in the Notice.
2. Because of this, the meaning of the answers closely resemble the information given in the Notice, thus giving the impression that all three answers are equally correct.
3. However, only answer 3 is the correct answer, as answers 1 and 2 are both much weaker paraphrases of the information in the Notice compared to answer 3. (To understand why, read Part 4 of this post.)

Example Listening Question

Click to play audio clip.

Which sofa does the woman like?

view answer

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The answer is answer #2. The woman prefers a sofa that is white coloured, with high back support, and wide (can seat up to 3 people). The sofa in answer #1 is too narrow, and the sofa in answer #3 has low back support (not high enough).

In the example Listening question, the sofa that the woman likes is sofa number 2. You will need good paraphrasing skills to figure this out, as the woman in the audio clip does not explicitly say that she is looking for "a white sofa with high back support that can seat up to 3 people".

Instead, these information are paraphrased at different points of the audio clip, so you will need to draw your own logical conclusion in order to arrive at the correct answer.

Here's how.

• At the beginning of the clip, the woman says, "Hmm. I don't know. I believe a white sofa would fit our living room better." From this, you may conclude that she prefers a white coloured sofa.
• In the middle of the clip, the man says, "It has a high back support. This will be perfect for your backaches." Because the woman does not deny this, you may conclude that she is looking for a sofa with high back support.
• Near the end of the clip, the woman says, "But don't you think this one's a little bit narrow? We'll need one that can sit up to three people." As such, you may conclude that she is looking for a wide sofa and not a narrow one.

By listening to the whole audio snippet and using your paraphrasing skills to draw logical conclusions from it, you will quickly realise that sofa number 2 is the only sofa that fits all three of the woman's criteria (white coloured, high back support, wide).

Easy, isn't it?

Although paraphrasing is easy once you master it, mastering the skill is another story altogether.

• You will need to widen your vocabulary so that you can understand subtle changes in meaning used in most questions.
• You will need to understand and learn a wider range of fixed expressions and idioms to tackle the more difficult questions in the test.
• You will need a good strategy to tackle longer questions, especially Extended Listening questions. (See · · Understanding what is being tested in Reading & Listening.)

In case you were wondering, both the example questions above are at 140-159/CEFR B1 level. If you found the questions confusing, then you'd probably want to improve your paraphrasing skills.