Tha or the?
tha is a pronoun meaning “Pronunciation spelling of thou”; the is an article meaning “...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) the is about 12,882 times as common as tha.
What is the difference between tha and the?
| tha | the | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | pronoun, article, noun | article, adverb, preposition, pronoun, prefix |
| Meaning | Pronunciation spelling of thou USEye dialect spelling of the | ...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives |
| Example | none recorded | I’m reading the book Mary reviewed. (Compare I’m reading a book Mary reviewed.) |
| Forms | THAs | da, d', teh, de, t', th' |
| Pronunciation | /ða/ | /ðə/ /ði/ [ðɪj] /ðiː/ |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words | 53,703 times per million words |
Sources: tha and the in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of tha and the
tha
- 1
Pronunciation spelling of thou
- 2
USEye dialect spelling of the
- 3
Initialism of total hip arthroplasty
the
- 1
...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter
I’m reading the book Mary reviewed. (Compare I’m reading a book Mary reviewed.)
- 2
With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives
The hotter(,) the better. (comma usually omitted in such very short expressions)
- 3
For each; per
valued at half a pound the bushel; paying seven dollars the year interest
- 4
Early Modern form of thee
- 5
god or deity
- 6
Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time
No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe
- 7
With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none
It was a difficult time, but I’m the wiser for it
- 8
Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar
No one in the whole country had seen it before
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, tha or the?
tha appears 4.2 times per million words; the 53,703 times per million words.
tha 4.2 times per million wordsthe 53,703 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).