Which to use
“shoes” is a noun and “spies” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,277
- “shoes” frequency rank
- #43,504
- “spies” frequency rank
- 89781
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shoes | spies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plural des Substantivs shoe | 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präteritum Aktiv des Verbs speisen |
Where the eye mixes shoes and spies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. shoes and spies follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses shoes with spies
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shoes is [ʃuːz] while spies is [ʃpiːs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 89781, 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]. spies is at rank #43,504, tagged as averb, pronounced [ʃpiːs].
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 89781, this pair ranks #53,694 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of shoes vs spies
Shared letters: es. Private to "shoes": ho. Private to "spies": ip.
"shoes" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "spies" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "shoes" for "spies" ever safe?
In ordinary German text, does "shoes" or "spies" show up more?
After this comparison
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 "spies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #53,694 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shoes" and "spies" 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 #53,694 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.