THCvsthenWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#43,694
“THC” frequency rank
#23,392
“then” frequency rank
67086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature THC then
Definition Abréviation de tétrahydrocannabinol. (Adverbe conjonctif) Alors, dans ce cas, par conséquence.

Where the eye mixes THC and then

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. THC runs 3 letters (CCC) against then's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
THC
4 ch
then

Why the eye confuses THC with then

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: THC is \te.aʃ.se\ while then is \ˈðɛn\. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

THC is recorded at frequency rank #43,694, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.aʃ.se\. then is at rank #23,392, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ˈðɛn\.

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 67086, this pair ranks #64,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of THC vs then

Shared letters: ht. Private to "THC": c. Private to "then": en.

"THC" · 3 letters · shape CCC  ·  "then" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • then ← hten · tehn · thenn · thhen · thne · tthen

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "THC" for "then" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "THC" is a noun and "then" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "THC" or "then" show up more?
"then" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,392 in our French list, against #43,694 for "THC". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "THC" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "then" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "THC" and "then" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "THC vs tif". 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 #64,964 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