That's

How to spell that's

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce that's

What does that's mean?

1. otherA contraction of 'that is' or 'that has', joining the demonstrative 'that' to a shortened verb.

That's in a sentence

• That's exactly the report the manager asked for this morning.

• That's been a long week at the office for everyone.

Where does that's come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a contraction of the demonstrative 'that' with either 'is' or 'has'. The base word 'that' descends from the Old English neuter demonstrative 'þæt', which named a thing already pointed to or mentioned, and it belongs to the same ancient family as 'the', 'this', and 'they'. The clipped verb is joined on with an apostrophe, a mark that English began using in the 1500s precisely to show where letters had been dropped, so the missing 'i' of 'is' or 'ha' of 'has' is signalled by that single punctuation point. The spelling trap is entirely modern and entirely about that apostrophe: writers often drop it, producing the non-word 'thats', or confuse the possessive instinct, even though demonstratives like this take no ownership 's. Remembering that 'that's' always unpacks into two words, 'that is' or 'that has', is the quickest way to keep the apostrophe in place.

How the word is built

• that (demonstrative)
• 's (contracted is or has)