she'svsShemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: she's is a contraction, Shem is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“she's” is a contraction and “Shem” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#552
“she's” frequency rank
#40,019
“Shem” frequency rank
40571
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature she's Shem
Definition Contraction of she + is. The oldest son of Noah, brother to Ham and Japheth.

Letter map: she's vs Shem

Shared letters muted; letters that set she's and Shem apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
she's
4 ch
Shem

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: she's is acontraction and Shemaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

she's is recorded at frequency rank #552, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ʃiːz/. Shem is at rank #40,019, tagged as aname.

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 40571, this pair ranks #266,347 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of she's vs Shem

Shared letters: ehs. Private to "she's": -. Private to "Shem": m.

"she's" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Shem" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Shemhsem · sehm · shemm · shhem · shme · sshem

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "she's" and "Shem" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "she's" is a contraction and "Shem" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "she's" or "Shem"?
"she's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #552 in our English list, against #40,019 for "Shem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "she's" and "Shem". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "she's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Shem" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,347 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "she's" and "Shem" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sez vs Shem". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list