TeránvsthanTell them apart

Quick tell: Terán is a name, than is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Terán” is a name and “than” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,873
“Terán” frequency rank
#19,584
“than” frequency rank
53457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Terán than
Definition Apellido. Que, de lo que.

Where the eye mixes Terán and than

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
Terán
4 ch
than

Why the eye confuses Terán with than

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Terán is [t̪eˈɾãn] while than is /ðæn/. 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 (name vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Terán is recorded at frequency rank #33,873, classified as aname, pronounced [t̪eˈɾãn]. than is at rank #19,584, tagged as aconj, pronounced /ðæn/.

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 53457, this pair ranks #87,771 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Terán vs than

Shared letters: nt. Private to "Terán": erá. Private to "than": ah.

"Terán" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "than" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • thanhtan · tahn · thann · thhan · thna · tthan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Terán" for "than" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Terán" is a name and "than" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "Terán" or "than" show up more?
"than" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,584 in our Spanish list, against #33,873 for "Terán". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "Terán" and "than" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Terán" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "than" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,771 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Terán" and "than" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Terán vs Tirana". 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 #87,771 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list