Thru, Tho, & Altho

This is something you can do today to endorse simpler English spelling. Just start writing thru and tho and altho in all your e-mails, texts, notes, and everywhere else that isn’t “official”.

These are legitimate dictionary words, generally labeled “variant” or “abbreviation” or “informal”, but real nevertheless. Thru is often found on road sines (“NO THRU TRUCKS”) and fast food restaurants (“DRIVE THRU”). Just start using them every day. Then add one of these graphics to your website.

Here are versions for pages with a dark background:

And here are tiny ones for any background:

If anyone tells you that this is their “pet peeve,” tell that person that through, though, and although are terrible spellings, and you have consciously decided to use the informal spellings to make things simpler, just like draught changed to draft and doughnut is rapidly changing to donut. You’re making a choice that is no different from choosing disk over disc or dialog over dialogue.

One day soon, other people will pick up the habit from you and me, and we’ll all just use them all the time. Then maybe people will be ready to think about more systematic spelling reform, like my 7 simple rules.

I’m a professional writer, and I use thru, tho, and altho in all my personal and business e-mails as well as personal writings. Almost no one has ever even mentioned it, and no one has ever complained. I don’t do it in my actual professional writing because I’m not the owner of that material, and I naturally need to conform to my employer’s standards. But everything that I write that is my own uses those spellings.

The full list I use is:

• thru
• thruout
• tho
• altho
• thoro
• thoroly