shivsShowWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: shi is a pronoun, Show is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shi” is a pronoun and “Show” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,128
“shi” frequency rank
#1,333
“Show” frequency rank
43461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shi Show
Definition Personalpronomen 3. Person Maskulinum Singular; er Vorführung eines (großen) Unterhaltungsprogramms vor Publikum (beispielsweise im Theater oder Varieté; oft in Fernsehen oder Radio übertragen), teilweise mit Informationscharakter

Where the eye mixes shi and Show

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
shi
4 ch
Show

Look-alike desk: shi vs Show

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shi is [ʃíː] while Show is [ʃɔʊ̯]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shi is recorded at frequency rank #42,128, classified as apron, pronounced [ʃíː]. Show is at rank #1,333, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ʃɔʊ̯].

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 43461, this pair ranks #1,417,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shi vs Show

Shared letters: hs. Private to "shi": i. Private to "Show": ow.

"shi" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "Show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shi" for "Show" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shi" is a pronoun and "Show" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "shi" vs "Show" - which ranks higher?
"Show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our German list, against #42,128 for "shi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Show" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,417,366 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shi" and "Show" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "seg vs shi". 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 #1,417,366 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