foodsvsshowsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#43,879
“foods” frequency rank
#8,130
“shows” frequency rank
52009
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foods shows
Definition Plural des Substantivs food 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Letter map: foods vs shows

Shared letters muted; letters that set foods and shows apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. foods (CVVCC) and shows (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
foods
5 ch
shows

Grammar separator: foods vs shows

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: foods is anoun and showsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foods is recorded at frequency rank #43,879, 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 52009, this pair ranks #1,113,448 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of foods vs shows

Shared letters: os. Private to "foods": df. Private to "shows": hw.

"foods" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foodsffoods · fodos · fods · foodds · foodss · foosd · ofods
  • showshsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foods" and "shows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "foods" is a noun and "shows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "foods" vs "shows" - which ranks higher?
"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #43,879 for "foods". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "foods" and "shows". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foods" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "shows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,113,448 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foods" and "shows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foods vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #1,113,448 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list