shows vs slow, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#8,130
“shows” frequency rank: #22,146
“slow” frequency rank: 30276
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	shows	slow
Definition	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show	langsam

Letter map: shows vs slow

Shared letters muted; letters that set shows and slow apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch

shows

4 ch

slow

Grammar separator: shows vs slow

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shows is averb and slowanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30276, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shows is recorded at frequency rank #8,130, classified as averb, pronounced […]. slow is at rank #22,146, tagged as anadj, pronounced [sləʊ].

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 30276, this pair ranks #1,751,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of shows vs slow

Shared letters: osw. Private to "shows": h. Private to "slow": l.

"shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "slow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

shows ← hsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows
slow ← lsow · sllow · sloww · slwo · solw · sslow

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "shows" and "slow" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shows" is a verb and "slow" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "shows" vs "slow" - which ranks higher?

"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #22,146 for "slow". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "shows" vs "slow" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "shows" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "slow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,751,023 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"shows" and "slow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "slow vs Smog". 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 #1,751,023 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.