there's vs thereto, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“there's” is a contraction and “thereto” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#267
“there's” frequency rank: #31,795
“thereto” frequency rank: 32062
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	there's	thereto
Definition	Contraction of there is.	To that.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set there's and thereto apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

there's

7 ch

thereto

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: there's is /ðəɹz/ while thereto is /ˌðɛəˈtuː/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

there's is recorded at frequency rank #267, classified as acontraction, pronounced /ðəɹz/. thereto is at rank #31,795, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ˌðɛəˈtuː/.

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 32062, this pair ranks #340,957 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of there's vs thereto

Shared letters: ehrt. Private to "there's": s. Private to "thereto": o.

"there's" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "thereto" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

thereto ← htereto · tehreto · theerto · thereot · theretto · therreto · therteo · thhereto

Frequency comparison

there's#267

thereto#31,795

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "there's" and "thereto" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "there's" is a contraction and "thereto" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "there's" or "thereto"?

"there's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #267 in our English list, against #31,795 for "thereto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering there's vs thereto

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a contraction, it's “there's”; for an adverb, it's “thereto”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “there's” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable