shows vs sous, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#8,130
“shows” frequency rank: #29,337
“sous” frequency rank: 37467
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	shows	sous
Definition	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs show	unter (unterhalb von)

Letter map: shows vs sous

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

5 ch

shows

4 ch

sous

Grammar separator: shows vs sous

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: shows is averb and sousapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37467, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shows is recorded at frequency rank #8,130, classified as averb, pronounced […]. sous is at rank #29,337, tagged as aprep, pronounced [su].

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 37467, this pair ranks #1,589,467 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of shows vs sous

Shared letters: os. Private to "shows": hw. Private to "sous": u.

"shows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "sous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

shows ← hsows · shhows · shosw · showss · showws · shwos · sohws · sshows
sous ← osus · sosu · souss · ssous · suos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "shows" for "sous" ever safe?

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

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

"shows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,130 in our German list, against #29,337 for "sous". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "shows" and "sous".

Full dictionary entry for "shows" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "sous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,589,467 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"shows" and "sous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sous vs SUVs". 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 #1,589,467 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.