Which to use
“shops” and “sons” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,049
- “shops” frequency rank
- #3,028
- “sons” frequency rank
- 7077
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | shops | sons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of shop | plural of son |
Where the eye mixes shops and sons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between shops and sons
A purely visual mix-up. shops (/ʃɑps/) and sons (/sʌnz/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
shops is recorded at frequency rank #4,049, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɑps/. sons is at rank #3,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sʌnz/.
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 7077, this pair ranks #508,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of shops vs sons
Shared letters: os. Private to "shops": hp. Private to "sons": n.
"shops" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "sons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "shops" and "sons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "shops" or "sons" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "shops" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #508,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "shops" and "sons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sons vs suds". 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 #508,677 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.