thisvsTunisWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#15
“this” frequency rank
#29,133
“Tunis” frequency rank
29148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature this Tunis
Definition The (thing) here (used in indicating something or someone nearby). A city on the northern coast of Africa

Where the eye mixes this and Tunis

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

4 ch
this
5 ch
Tunis

Why the eye confuses this with Tunis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: this is /ðɪs/ while Tunis is /ˈtjuːnɪs/. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

this is recorded at frequency rank #15, classified as adet, pronounced /ðɪs/. Tunis is at rank #29,133, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈtjuːnɪs/.

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 29148, this pair ranks #365,420 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of this vs Tunis

Shared letters: ist. Private to "this": h. Private to "Tunis": nu.

"this" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "Tunis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thishtis · thhis · thiss · thsi · tihs · tthis
  • Tunistnuis · ttunis · tuins · tuniss · tunnis · tunsi · utnis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "this" for "Tunis" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "this" is a determiner and "Tunis" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "this" or "Tunis"?
"this" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15 in our English list, against #29,133 for "Tunis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "Tunis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #365,420 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "this" and "Tunis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tints vs Tunis". 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 #365,420 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