there'svsthreesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: there's is a contraction, threes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#267
“there's” frequency rank
#28,401
“threes” frequency rank
28668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature there's threes
Definition Contraction of there is. The age of three; three years old.

Letter map: there's vs threes

Shared letters muted; letters that set there's and threes apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. there's (CCVCVC) and threes (CCCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
there's
6 ch
threes

Part-of-speech tell for there's / threes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: there's is acontraction and threesanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28668, 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/. threes is at rank #28,401, tagged as anoun.

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 28668, this pair ranks #369,270 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of there's vs threes

Shared letters: ehrst. Private to "there's": -. Private to "threes": -.

"there's" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "threes" · 6 letters · shape CCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • threes ← htrees · thhrees · threess · thres · threse · thrrees · trhees · tthrees

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "there's" and "threes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "there's" is a contraction and "threes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "there's" vs "threes" - which ranks higher?
"there's" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #267 in our English list, against #28,401 for "threes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "there's" and "threes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "there's" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "threes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #369,270 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "there's" and "threes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Thales vs threes". 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 #369,270 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list