Which to use
“thank” is a noun and “that” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #317
- “thank” frequency rank
- #10
- “that” frequency rank
- 327
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thank | that |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | singular of thanks (“an expression of appreciation or gratitude; grateful feelings or thoughts; favour, goodwill, graciousness”) | Introducing a clause that is the object of a verb, especially a reporting verb or verb expressing belief, knowledge, perception, etc. |
Where the eye mixes thank and that
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thank is /ˈθæŋk/ while that is /ðət/. 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 (noun vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 327, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thank is recorded at frequency rank #317, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈθæŋk/. that is at rank #10, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ðət/.
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 327, this pair ranks #529,586 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of thank vs that
Shared letters: aht. Private to "thank": kn. Private to "that": -.
"thank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC