thisvsthonWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: this is a pronoun, thon is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“this” is a pronoun and “thon” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,559
“this” frequency rank
#42,867
“thon” frequency rank
45426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature this thon
Definition in der Nähe Zeiteinheit, Dauer von zwölf Monaten; Jahr

Where the eye mixes this and thon

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

4 ch
this
4 ch
thon

Look-alike desk: this vs thon

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: this is [ðɪs] while thon is [tʰɔn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

this is recorded at frequency rank #2,559, classified as apron, pronounced [ðɪs]. thon is at rank #42,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced [tʰɔn].

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 45426, this pair ranks #1,353,419 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of this vs thon

Shared letters: ht. Private to "this": is. Private to "thon": no.

"this" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "thon" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thishtis · thhis · thiss · thsi · tihs · tthis
  • thonhton · thhon · thno · thonn · tohn · tthon

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "this" and "thon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "this" is a pronoun and "thon" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "this" or "thon" show up more?
"this" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,559 in our German list, against #42,867 for "thon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "this" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,353,419 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "this" and "thon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thon vs Tons". 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 #1,353,419 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list