thés vs thu, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#31,280
“thés” frequency rank: #48,228
“thu” frequency rank: 79508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	thés	thu
Definition	Pluriel de thé.	Forme mutée de tu par spirantisation.

Where the eye mixes thés and thu

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

4 ch

thés

3 ch

thu

Why the eye confuses thés with thu

A purely visual mix-up. thés (\te\) and thu (\θɨː\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

thés is recorded at frequency rank #31,280, classified as anoun, pronounced \te\. thu is at rank #48,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced \θɨː\.

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 79508, this pair ranks #23,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of thés vs thu

Shared letters: ht. Private to "thés": sé. Private to "thu": u.

"thés" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "thu" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "thés" for "thu" ever safe?

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

Frequency check: "thés" vs "thu" - which ranks higher?

"thés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,280 in our French list, against #48,228 for "thu". 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 "thés" and "thu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "thés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "thu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #23,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"thés" and "thu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thu vs tif". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,110 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.