habsvsshowsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,992
“habs” frequency rank
#8,130
“shows” frequency rank
13122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature habs shows
Definition habe es 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Letter map: habs vs shows

Shared letters muted; letters that set habs and shows apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. habs runs 4 letters (CVCC) against shows's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
habs
5 ch
shows

Grammar separator: habs vs shows

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: habs is anabbrev and showsaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

habs is recorded at frequency rank #4,992, classified as anabbrev, 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 13122, this pair ranks #1,959,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of habs vs shows

Shared letters: hs. Private to "habs": ab. Private to "shows": ow.

"habs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • habs ← ahbs · habbs · habss · hasb · hbas · hhabs
  • shows ← hsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "habs" and "shows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "habs" is an abbrev and "shows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "habs" or "shows" show up more?
"habs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,992 in our German list, against #8,130 for "shows". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "habs" 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 #1,959,978 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "habs" and "shows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs shows". 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 #1,959,978 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