TH vs ty, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#16,022
“TH” frequency rank: #21,196
“ty” frequency rank: 37218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	TH	ty
Definition	titre hydrotimétrique (GH en allemand pour GesamtHärte).	Flûte chinoise.

Where the eye mixes TH and ty

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch

Why the eye confuses TH with ty

A purely visual mix-up. TH (\te.aʃ\) and ty (\ti\) 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 a single letter - h in “TH” becomes y in “ty”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37218, 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\. ty is at rank #21,196, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ti\.

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 37218, this pair ranks #264,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of TH vs ty

Shared letters: t. Private to "TH": h. Private to "ty": y.

"TH" · 2 letters · shape CC · "ty" · 2 letters · shape CV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "TH" for "ty" ever safe?

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

Frequency check: "TH" vs "ty" - which ranks higher?

"TH" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,022 in our French list, against #21,196 for "ty". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "TH" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "ty" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #264,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"TH" and "ty" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tif vs ty". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #264,052 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.