thank vs that, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“thank” is a verb and “that” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,138
“thank” frequency rank: #5,784
“that” frequency rank: 36922
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	thank	that
Definition	Agradecer.	Ese, esa, esos, esas.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set thank and that apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

thank

4 ch

that

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thank is /θæŋk/ while that is /ðæt/. 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 (verb vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36922, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thank is recorded at frequency rank #31,138, classified as averb, pronounced /θæŋk/. that is at rank #5,784, tagged as apron, pronounced /ðæt/.

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 36922, this pair ranks #178,068 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of thank vs that

Shared letters: aht. Private to "thank": kn. Private to "that": -.

"thank" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "that" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

thank ← htank · tahnk · thakn · thankk · thannk · thhank · thnak · tthank
that ← htat · taht · thatt · thhat · thta · tthat

Frequency comparison

thank#31,138

that#5,784

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "thank" and "that" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "thank" is a verb and "that" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "thank" or "that"?

"that" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,784 in our Spanish list, against #31,138 for "thank". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering thank vs that

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

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