thisvsthyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“this” and “thy” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,559
“this” frequency rank
#47,049
“thy” frequency rank
49608
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature this thy
Definition in der Nähe dein

Where the eye mixes this and thy

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

4 ch
this
3 ch
thy

Look-alike desk: this vs thy

A purely visual mix-up. this ([ðɪs]) and thy ([ðaɪ]) 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 49608, 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]. thy is at rank #47,049, tagged as apron, pronounced [ðaɪ].

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 49608, this pair ranks #1,205,048 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of this vs thy

Shared letters: ht. Private to "this": is. Private to "thy": y.

"this" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "thy" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thishtis · thhis · thiss · thsi · tihs · tthis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "this" and "thy" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ðɪs] versus [ðaɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "this" or "thy"?
"this" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,559 in our German list, against #47,049 for "thy". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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 "thy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,205,048 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "this" and "thy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thy vs TSE". 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 #1,205,048 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