terrevsthereWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: terre is a noun, there is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“terre” is a noun and “there” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#386
“terre” frequency rank
#13,702
“there” frequency rank
14088
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terre there
Definition Sol sur lequel nous marchons, sur lequel les maisons sont construites, qui produit et nourrit les végétaux. Là, là-bas, y.

Where the eye mixes terre and there

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
terre
5 ch
there

Look-alike desk: terre vs there

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: terre is \tɛʁ\ while there is \ðɛɚ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terre is recorded at frequency rank #386, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁ\. there is at rank #13,702, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ðɛɚ\.

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 14088, this pair ranks #398,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of terre vs there

Shared letters: ert. Private to "terre": -. Private to "there": h.

"terre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • terreetrre · tere · terer · trere · tterre
  • therehtere · tehre · theer · therre · thhere · tthere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "terre" and "there" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "terre" is a noun and "there" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "terre" vs "there" - which ranks higher?
"terre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #386 in our French list, against #13,702 for "there". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "there" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terre" and "there" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "there vs tiercé". 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 #398,245 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list