TH vs thou, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“TH” and “thou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,022
“TH” frequency rank: #44,777
“thou” frequency rank: 60799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	TH	thou
Definition	titre hydrotimétrique (GH en allemand pour GesamtHärte).	Écluse en pierre ou en béton permettant de vider lentement les étangs de la Dombes dans l'Ain.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set TH and thou apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

2 ch

4 ch

thou

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. TH (\te.aʃ\) and thou (\tu\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “TH” sits inside “thou”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

TH is recorded at frequency rank #16,022, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.aʃ\. thou is at rank #44,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tu\.

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 60799, this pair ranks #95,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of TH vs thou

Shared letters: ht. Private to "TH": -. Private to "thou": ou.

"TH" · 2 letters · shape CC · "thou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

thou ← htou · thhou · thuo · tohu · tthou

Frequency comparison

TH#16,022

thou#44,777

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "TH" and "thou" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (\te.aʃ\ versus \tu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "TH" or "thou"?

"TH" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,022 in our French list, against #44,777 for "thou". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering TH vs thou

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “TH” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable