themvsthyConfusable pair

Which to use

“them” and “thy” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,759
“them” frequency rank
#47,049
“thy” frequency rank
62808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature them thy
Definition Personalpronomen 3. Person Plural Objektform: ihnen, sie dein

Where the eye mixes them and thy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
them
3 ch
thy

Visual trap between them and thy

A purely visual mix-up. them ([ðɛm]) and thy ([ðaɪ]) 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 62808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

them is recorded at frequency rank #15,759, classified as apron, pronounced [ðɛm]. thy is at rank #47,049, tagged as apron, pronounced [ðaɪ].

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 62808, this pair ranks #699,451 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of them vs thy

Shared letters: ht. Private to "them": em. Private to "thy": y.

"them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "thy" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • themhtem · tehm · themm · thhem · thme · tthem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "them" for "thy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ðɛm] versus [ðaɪ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "them" or "thy"?
"them" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,759 in our German list, against #47,049 for "thy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "them" and "thy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "them" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "thy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #699,451 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "them" and "thy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thy vs TSE". 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 #699,451 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list