Which to use
“share” and “shares” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #642
- “share” frequency rank
- #2,502
- “shares” frequency rank
- 3144
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | share | shares |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A portion of something, especially a portion given or allotted to someone. | plural of share |
Where the eye mixes share and shares
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. share (/ʃɛə/) and shares (/ʃɛəz/) 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) - “share” sits inside “shares”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
share is recorded at frequency rank #642, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɛə/. shares is at rank #2,502, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃɛəz/.
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 3144, this pair ranks #522,982 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of share vs shares
Shared letters: aehrs. Private to "share": -. Private to "shares": -.
"share" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "shares" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC