How to play Pairs
Play Pairs
The rules
- The board is a grid of face-down cards. Each picture has one card with the picture and one card with its word.
- Tap a card to turn it face up, then tap a second card.
- If the two cards are a picture and its word, they match and stay face up.
- If they do not match, they stay face up until your next tap, which turns them face down again.
- Match every card to finish. Fewer misses and less time give a higher score.
How to play here
- Tap or click a card to turn it.
- A matched pair gets a check mark. Two cards that do not match get a cross.
- Keyboard: the arrows move between the cards, Enter or Space turns the selected card.
- The theme of the day and your misses so far are above the cards.
Difficulty levels
| Level |
Pairs |
Grid |
| Easy |
6 |
4×3 |
| Medium |
8 |
4×4 |
| Hard |
10 |
5×4 |
| Expert |
15 |
6×5 |
Tips
- Turn a card you have not seen yet before you guess: a new card gives you new information.
- Remember where the words are, not only the pictures.
- A miss costs 10 points, the same as 10 seconds, so it can be worth a moment to think.
FAQ
- What is a pair?
- A picture card and the card with its word, for example the cat picture and the word cat. Two pictures or two words never make a pair.
- What happens when two cards do not match?
- They stay face up until your next tap, so you can remember them. The next tap turns them face down. A miss lowers your score.
- How is the score counted?
- You start with 100 points per pair. Each miss takes off 10 points and each second takes off 1 point. The score never goes below 0.
- Is there a new board every day?
- Yes. A new Pairs board is dealt every day at each of the four levels: easy, medium, hard and expert. The cards come from one of 12 themes, so a theme can come back on any day, with other cards and a new layout. Earlier boards are in the archive.
- Do I need an account to play?
- No. You play right in your browser, with no sign-up and no cookies. Your progress is saved in your browser.
