therevsthermesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#13,702
“there” frequency rank
#24,053
“thermes” frequency rank
37755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature there thermes
Definition Là, là-bas, y. Établissement de bains publics chauds, qui comprenait souvent des palestres, des gymnases, des bibliothèques, des jardins, etc.

Where the eye mixes there and thermes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. there runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against thermes's 7 (CCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
there
7 ch
thermes

Visual trap between there and thermes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: there is \ðɛɚ\ while thermes is \tɛʁm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

there is recorded at frequency rank #13,702, classified as anadv, pronounced \ðɛɚ\. thermes is at rank #24,053, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛʁm\.

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 37755, this pair ranks #260,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of there vs thermes

Shared letters: ehrt. Private to "there": -. Private to "thermes": ms.

"there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "thermes" · 7 letters · shape CCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • there ← htere · tehre · theer · therre · thhere · tthere
  • thermes ← htermes · tehrmes · themres · therems · thermess · thermmes · thermse · therrmes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "there" for "thermes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "there" is an adverb and "thermes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "there" or "thermes" show up more?
"there" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,702 in our French list, against #24,053 for "thermes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "there" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thermes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "there" and "thermes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thermes vs thermos". 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 #260,159 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