Which to use
“thar” is an adverb and “thon” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #42,944
- “thar” frequency rank
- #34,717
- “thon” frequency rank
- 77661
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thar | thon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nonstandard form of there. | they (singular). Gender-neutral third-person singular subject pronoun, coordinate with gendered pronouns he and she. |
Letter map: thar vs thon
Shared letters muted; letters that set thar and thon apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. thar and thon follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Part-of-speech tell for thar / thon
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thar is anadverb and thonapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thar is recorded at frequency rank #42,944, classified as anadv. thon is at rank #34,717, tagged as apron, pronounced /ðʌn/.
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 77661, this pair ranks #26,675 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of thar vs thon
Shared letters: ht. Private to "thar": ar. Private to "thon": no.
"thar" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thon" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thar" and "thon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "thar" or "thon"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "thar" and "thon".
- Full dictionary entry for "thar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,675 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thar" and "thon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thar vs Trav". 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 #26,675 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.