Which to use
“follow” and “follows” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #747
- “follow” frequency rank
- #1,634
- “follows” frequency rank
- 2381
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | follow | follows |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To go after; to pursue; to move behind in the same path or direction, especially with the intent of catching. | third-person singular simple present indicative of follow |
Where the eye mixes follow and follows
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. follow runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against follows's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between follow and follows
A purely visual mix-up. follow (/ˈfɒləʊ/) and follows (/ˈfɒl.əʊz/) 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 extra letter(s) - “follow” sits inside “follows”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2381, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
follow is recorded at frequency rank #747, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈfɒləʊ/. follows is at rank #1,634, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈfɒl.əʊz/.
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 2381, this pair ranks #525,124 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of follow vs follows
Shared letters: flow. Private to "follow": -. Private to "follows": s.
"follow" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "follows" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "follow" and "follows" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "follow" vs "follows" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "follow" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "follows" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #525,124 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "follow" and "follows" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fallow vs follows". 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 #525,124 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.