ShekvsshoTell them apart

Quick tell: Shek is a name, sho is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Shek” is a name and “sho” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,911
“Shek” frequency rank
#24,589
“sho” frequency rank
68500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Shek sho
Definition A surname from Cantonese. Pronunciation spelling of sure.

Letter map: Shek vs sho

Shared letters muted; letters that set Shek and sho apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Shek
3 ch
sho

Part-of-speech tell for Shek / sho

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Shek is aname and shoanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Shek is recorded at frequency rank #43,911, classified as aname. sho is at rank #24,589, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ʃəʊ/.

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 68500, this pair ranks #58,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Shek vs sho

Shared letters: hs. Private to "Shek": ek. Private to "sho": o.

"Shek" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "sho" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Shekhsek · sehk · shekk · shhek · shke · sshek

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Shek" and "sho" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Shek" is a name and "sho" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Shek" vs "sho" - which ranks higher?
"sho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,589 in our English list, against #43,911 for "Shek". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Shek" vs "sho" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Shek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,612 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Shek" and "sho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sez vs Shek". 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 #58,612 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list