gripsvsshowsConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#43,230
“grips” frequency rank
#8,130
“shows” frequency rank
51360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grips shows
Definition Plural des Substantivs grip 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Letter map: grips vs shows

Shared letters muted; letters that set grips and shows apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. grips and shows follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
grips
5 ch
shows

Grammar separator: grips vs shows

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: grips is anoun and showsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grips is recorded at frequency rank #43,230, 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 51360, this pair ranks #1,138,513 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of grips vs shows

Shared letters: s. Private to "grips": gipr. Private to "shows": how.

"grips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grips ← ggrips · girps · gripps · gripss · grisp · grpis · grrips · rgips
  • shows ← hsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "grips" for "shows" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "grips" is a noun and "shows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "grips" or "shows"?
"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #43,230 for "grips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "grips" and "shows".

  • Full dictionary entry for "grips" 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 #1,138,513 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "grips" and "shows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grips 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 #1,138,513 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