snows vs so's, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“snows” is a noun and “so's” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,234
“snows” frequency rank: #38,171
“so's” frequency rank: 68405
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	snows	so's
Definition	One or both regions of the Earth where it snows the year round; the Arctic and/or Antarctic.	So that, in order that.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set snows and so's apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

snows

4 ch

so's

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: snows is anoun and so'sacontraction. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68405, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

snows is recorded at frequency rank #30,234, classified as anoun, pronounced /snəʊz/. so's is at rank #38,171, tagged as acontraction.

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 68405, this pair ranks #59,016 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of snows vs so's

Shared letters: os. Private to "snows": nw. Private to "so's": -.

"snows" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "so's" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

snows ← nsows · snnows · snosw · snowss · snowws · snwos · sonws · ssnows

Frequency comparison

snows#30,234

so's#38,171

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "snows" and "so's" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "snows" is a noun and "so's" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "snows" or "so's"?

"snows" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,234 in our English list, against #38,171 for "so's". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering snows vs so's

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “snows”; for a contraction, it's “so's”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “snows” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable