thisvstripsTell them apart

Quick tell: this is a determiner, trips is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“this” is a determiner and “trips” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15
“this” frequency rank
#4,905
“trips” frequency rank
4920
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature this trips
Definition The (thing) here (used in indicating something or someone nearby). plural of trip

Where the eye mixes this and trips

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
this
5 ch
trips

Visual trap between this and trips

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: this is /ðɪs/ while trips is /tɹɪps/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

this is recorded at frequency rank #15, classified as adet, pronounced /ðɪs/. trips is at rank #4,905, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tɹɪps/.

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 4920, this pair ranks #517,223 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of this vs trips

Shared letters: ist. Private to "this": h. Private to "trips": pr.

"this" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "trips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thishtis · thhis · thiss · thsi · tihs · tthis
  • tripsrtips · tirps · tripps · tripss · trisp · trpis · trrips · ttrips

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "this" and "trips" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "this" is a determiner and "trips" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "this" or "trips" show up more?
"this" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15 in our English list, against #4,905 for "trips". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "this" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "trips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #517,223 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "this" and "trips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trips vs TTIP". 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 #517,223 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