she'svsshowsWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#48,483
“she's” frequency rank
#8,130
“shows” frequency rank
56613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature she's shows
Definition she is: sie ist 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set she's and shows apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
she's
5 ch
shows

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: she's is anabbrev and showsaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

she's is recorded at frequency rank #48,483, 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 56613, this pair ranks #933,550 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of she's vs shows

Shared letters: hs. Private to "she's": e. Private to "shows": ow.

"she's" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • showshsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows

Frequency comparison

she's#48,483
shows#8,130

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "she's" and "shows" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "she's" is an abbrev and "shows" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "she's" or "shows"?
"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #48,483 for "she's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering she's vs shows

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an abbrev, it's “she's”; for a verb, it's “shows”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “she's” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list