A crucial distinction is that changing wording does not always require changing the meaning; yet subtle vocabulary differences can affect legal implications.
Illustrative pair: “The student was present” and “The student arrived” may communicate similar information in ordinary speech, but “attendance” and “arrival” are not identical in every context.
Another pair: “Every person” and “some people” plainly differ in scope. Substituting one for the other changes the claim rather than merely restating its meaning.
Statements, commands, prohibitions, conditions, exceptions, and emphasis in hadith can all depend on verbal precision. The criterion for permissible paraphrase must be actual equivalence of intended meaning, not merely the presence of roughly related dictionary entries.