shoesvsShowWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“shoes” and “Show” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,277
“shoes” frequency rank
#1,333
“Show” frequency rank
47610
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shoes Show
Definition Plural des Substantivs shoe Vorführung eines (großen) Unterhaltungsprogramms vor Publikum (beispielsweise im Theater oder Varieté; oft in Fernsehen oder Radio übertragen), teilweise mit Informationscharakter

Where the eye mixes shoes and Show

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
shoes
4 ch
Show

Look-alike desk: shoes vs Show

A purely visual mix-up. shoes ([ʃuːz]) and Show ([ʃɔʊ̯]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shoes is recorded at frequency rank #46,277, classified as anoun, pronounced [ʃuːz]. 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 47610, this pair ranks #1,278,328 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shoes vs Show

Shared letters: hos. Private to "shoes": e. Private to "Show": w.

"shoes" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "Show" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shoeshsoes · sheos · shhoes · shoess · shose · sohes · sshoes
  • Showhsow · shhow · showw · shwo · sohw · sshow

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "shoes" and "Show" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ʃuːz] versus [ʃɔʊ̯]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "shoes" or "Show" show up more?
"Show" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our German list, against #46,277 for "shoes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "shoes" 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 #1,278,328 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shoes" and "Show" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "she's vs shoes". 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 #1,278,328 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