thavsthanConfusable pair

Quick tell: tha is a verb, than is a conjunction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“tha” is a verb and “than” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,931
“tha” frequency rank
#13,187
“than” frequency rank
52118
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tha than
Definition presente do verbo bi (ser, estar); sou/estou, é/está, somos/estamos, são/estão que (usado em comparações)

Letter map: tha vs than

Shared letters muted; letters that set tha and than apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. tha runs 3 letters (CCV) against than's 4 (CCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
tha
4 ch
than

Grammar separator: tha vs than

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: tha is averb and thanaconjunction. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “tha” sits inside “than”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52118, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tha is recorded at frequency rank #38,931, classified as averb, pronounced /ha/. than is at rank #13,187, tagged as aconj.

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 52118, this pair ranks #13,019 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tha vs than

Shared letters: aht. Private to "tha": -. Private to "than": n.

"tha" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "than" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • than ← htan · tahn · thann · thhan · thna · tthan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "tha" and "than" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tha" is a verb and "than" a conjunction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "tha" vs "than" - which ranks higher?
"than" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,187 in our Portuguese list, against #38,931 for "tha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "tha" and "than". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "than" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,019 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tha" and "than" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tha vs tosa". 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 #13,019 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list