shotvssoyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: shot is a noun, soy is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“shot” is a noun and “soy” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,812
“shot” frequency rank
#134
“soy” frequency rank
25946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature shot soy
Definition Acción o efecto de beber de un único sorbo el contenido de bebida alcohólica que quepa en un chupito. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de ser.

Where the eye mixes shot and soy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
shot
3 ch
soy

Visual trap between shot and soy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: shot is [ˈʃot̪] while soy is [ˈsoj]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

shot is recorded at frequency rank #25,812, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈʃot̪]. soy is at rank #134, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈsoj].

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 25946, this pair ranks #234,054 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of shot vs soy

Shared letters: os. Private to "shot": ht. Private to "soy": y.

"shot" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "soy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • shothsot · shhot · shott · shto · soht · sshot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "shot" and "soy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "shot" is a noun and "soy" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "shot" or "soy" show up more?
"soy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #134 in our Spanish list, against #25,812 for "shot". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "shot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "soy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,054 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "shot" and "soy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "shot vs snob". 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 #234,054 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list