Countries that everyone keeps confusing

Some countries are just unlucky with their name. They sound like their neighbour, sit somewhere else entirely and have caused mix-ups for decades, right up into diplomacy.

Slovakia and Slovenia

The classic. Both young, both Central European, both with a similar red-blue-white flag. The confusion is so common that, by a well-known account, the two countries' embassies in one capital used to meet regularly to swap wrongly delivered mail. Memory hook: Slovenia sits further south, on the Mediterranean, capital Ljubljana. Slovakia sits further north, landlocked, capital Bratislava.

Austria and Australia

One letter apart, 15,000 kilometres apart. Vienna sells souvenir shirts reading No kangaroos in Austria because the mix-up happens so often. Mnemonic: Australia has the kangaroo, Austria has the Alps.

Niger and Nigeria

Neighbours in West Africa, which makes it especially tricky. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, capital Abuja. Niger is far more sparsely populated, mostly desert, capital Niamey. Even the stress differs in speech: Niger the French way, Nigeria the English way.

And the usual remaining suspects

• Dominica (island state, capital Roseau) and the Dominican Republic (capital Santo Domingo), two different Caribbean countries.
• Georgia the country in the Caucasus and the US state of Georgia, spelled identically in English.
• Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea, three separate countries sharing the name.

In a quiz it is not knowledge that decides here, it is precision. And precision is exactly what CountryRush trains, by deliberately placing such pairs side by side as answers.