How to tell look-alike flags apart

Some flags are so alike that even geography fans hesitate. The good news is that almost every confusing pair has one reliable difference: a shade, an order, a shape or a small emblem. Learn that one detail and the pair stops being a coin toss.

These two are the classic trap: both are vertical blue, yellow and red tricolours in the same order. The difference is the blue. Chad's blue is darker, close to indigo, while Romania's is a brighter cobalt. If you see both side by side, Chad looks heavier on the left. Andorra and Moldova use the same three colours too, but both carry a coat of arms in the middle, so a plain flag is always Chad or Romania.

All three use red and white in two horizontal bands. Poland is the easy one: white is on top. Indonesia and Monaco both put red on top, and the only difference is the shape. Monaco's flag is almost square (4:5), while Indonesia's is longer (2:3). AtlasGenie always shows flags at their real proportions, so the shape is a fair clue.

Both are green, white and orange vertical tricolours, but the order is reversed. Ireland has green at the flagpole; Côte d'Ivoire has orange at the flagpole. A handy memory trick: Ireland is the green isle, so green comes first. Italy is the other neighbour in this group, and its third band is red, not orange.

Both are dark blue with the Union Jack in the corner and the Southern Cross on the right. Look at the stars. Australia's stars are white, and it has a large seven-pointed star under the Union Jack plus a small fifth star in the Southern Cross. New Zealand has only four stars, and they are red with white borders.

Both are red, white and blue horizontal stripes in the same order. Luxembourg's blue is a light sky blue and its flag is longer, while the Dutch flag uses a deep navy blue. If the bottom stripe looks almost turquoise, it's Luxembourg.

When two flags look the same, check these four things in order:

1. Order: are the colours the same way round? Ireland and Côte d'Ivoire, Indonesia and Poland.
2. Shade: is one colour lighter or darker? Chad and Romania, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
3. Shape: is one flag squarer or longer? Monaco and Indonesia.
4. Emblems and stars: count them and check their colour. Australia and New Zealand, Senegal and Mali.

Practise these pairs in the Flags quiz on Expert, where the wrong answers are chosen to be look-alikes, and every country page shows its look-alikes side by side.