LucyvstheirWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Lucy is a name, their is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lucy” is a name and “their” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,697
“Lucy” frequency rank
#11,131
“their” frequency rank
22828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lucy their
Definition weiblicher Vorname ihr

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Lucy and their apart are highlighted. They share no common letter run, the confusion here is by sound, not by sight.

4 ch
Lucy
5 ch
their

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Lucy is aname and theirapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lucy is recorded at frequency rank #11,697, classified as aname, pronounced […]. their is at rank #11,131, tagged as apron, pronounced […].

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 22828, this pair ranks #1,869,235 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lucy vs their

Shared letters: none. Private to "Lucy": cluy. Private to "their": ehirt.

"Lucy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "their" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lucylcuy · llucy · luccy · lucyy · luyc · ulcy
  • theirhteir · tehir · theirr · theri · thheir · thier · ttheir

Frequency comparison

Lucy#11,697
their#11,131

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lucy" and "their" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lucy" is a name and "their" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Lucy" or "their"?
"their" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,131 in our German list, against #11,697 for "Lucy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Lucy vs their

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “Lucy”; for a pronoun, it's “their”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Lucy” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list