Which to use
“give” and “gives” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #185
- “give” frequency rank
- #991
- “gives” frequency rank
- 1176
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | give | gives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To move, shift, provide something abstract or concrete to someone or something or somewhere. | third-person singular simple present indicative of give |
Where the eye mixes give and gives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. give (/ɡɪv/) and gives (/ɡɪvz/) 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) - “give” sits inside “gives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
give is recorded at frequency rank #185, classified as averb, pronounced /ɡɪv/. gives is at rank #991, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɡɪvz/.
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 1176, this pair ranks #527,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of give vs gives
Shared letters: egiv. Private to "give": -. Private to "gives": s.
"give" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "gives" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC