Which to use
“than” is a conjunction and “tho” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #77
- “than” frequency rank
- #3,588
- “tho” frequency rank
- 3665
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | than | tho |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Used in comparisons, to introduce the basis of comparison. | The (plural form); those. |
Where the eye mixes than and tho
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: than is /ðæn/ while tho is /ðəʊ/. 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 (conjunction vs article), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
than is recorded at frequency rank #77, classified as aconj, pronounced /ðæn/. tho is at rank #3,588, tagged as anarticle, pronounced /ðəʊ/.
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 3665, this pair ranks #521,395 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of than vs tho
Shared letters: ht. Private to "than": an. Private to "tho": o.
"than" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "tho" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- than ← htan · tahn · thann · thhan · thna · tthan