earthvsshowsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: earth is a noun, shows is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“earth” is a noun and “shows” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,785
“earth” frequency rank
#8,130
“shows” frequency rank
22915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature earth shows
Definition Erde, Erdball, Welt 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set earth and shows apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
earth
5 ch
shows

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: earth is anoun and showsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

earth is recorded at frequency rank #14,785, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. shows is at rank #8,130, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 22915, this pair ranks #1,868,085 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of earth vs shows

Shared letters: h. Private to "earth": aert. Private to "shows": osw.

"earth" · 5 letters · shape VVCCC  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • earthaerth · earht · earrth · earthh · eartth · eatrh · erath
  • showshsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequency comparison

earth#14,785
shows#8,130

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "earth" and "shows" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "earth" is a noun and "shows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "earth" or "shows"?
"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #14,785 for "earth". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering earth vs shows

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “earth”; for a verb, it's “shows”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “earth” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list