that'd vs that's, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“that'd” and “that's” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,463
“that'd” frequency rank: #143
“that's” frequency rank: 10606
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	that'd	that's
Definition	that would	That is.

Where the eye mixes that'd and that's

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. that'd and that's follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch

that'd

6 ch

that's

Look-alike desk: that'd vs that's

A purely visual mix-up. that'd (/ˈðætəd/) and that's (/ðəts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - d in “that'd” becomes s in “that's”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

that'd is recorded at frequency rank #10,463, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ˈðætəd/. that's is at rank #143, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /ðəts/.

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 10606, this pair ranks #491,456 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of that'd vs that's

Shared letters: aht. Private to "that'd": d. Private to "that's": s.

"that'd" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "that's" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "that'd" and "that's" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/ˈðætəd/ versus /ðəts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

In ordinary English text, does "that'd" or "that's" show up more?

"that's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #143 in our English list, against #10,463 for "that'd". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "that'd" and "that's" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "that'd" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "that's" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #491,456 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"that'd" and "that's" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "that'd vs thawed". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #491,456 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.