thanvsthatsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: than is a conjunction, thats is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“than” is a conjunction and “thats” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#77
“than” frequency rank
#2,922
“thats” frequency rank
2999
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature than thats
Definition Used in comparisons, to introduce the basis of comparison. plural of that

Letter map: than vs thats

Shared letters muted; letters that set than and thats apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
than
5 ch
thats

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: than is aconjunction and thatsanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

than is recorded at frequency rank #77, classified as aconj, pronounced /ðæn/. thats is at rank #2,922, tagged as anoun.

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 2999, this pair ranks #523,416 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of than vs thats

Shared letters: aht. Private to "than": n. Private to "thats": s.

"than" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "thats" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thanhtan · tahn · thann · thhan · thna · tthan
  • thatshtats · tahts · thast · thatss · thatts · thhats · thtas · tthats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "than" and "thats" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "than" is a conjunction and "thats" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "than" or "thats"?
"than" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #77 in our English list, against #2,922 for "thats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list