Which to use
“that” is a conjunction and “thay” is an article - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10
- “that” frequency rank
- #43,958
- “thay” frequency rank
- 43968
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | that | thay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Introducing a clause that is the object of a verb, especially a reporting verb or verb expressing belief, knowledge, perception, etc. | Pronunciation spelling of the. |
Letter map: that vs thay
Shared letters muted; letters that set that and thay apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. that (CCVC) and thay (CCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for that / thay
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: that is aconjunction and thayanarticle. On the page they differ by a single letter - t in “that” becomes y in “thay”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
that is recorded at frequency rank #10, classified as aconj, pronounced /ðət/. thay is at rank #43,958, tagged as anarticle.
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 43968, this pair ranks #234,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of that vs thay
Shared letters: aht. Private to "that": -. Private to "thay": y.
"that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "that" and "thay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "that" or "thay"?
After this comparison
You've compared "that" and "thay". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "that" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "that" and "thay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thay 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 #234,956 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.