teenvsthemWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: teen is a noun, them is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“teen” is a noun and “them” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,127
“teen” frequency rank
#71
“them” frequency rank
4198
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature teen them
Definition Synonym of teenager: a person between 13 and 19 years old (inclusive). Those ones.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set teen and them apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
teen
4 ch
them

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

teen and them form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

teen is recorded at frequency rank #4,127, classified as anoun, pronounced /tiːn/. them is at rank #71, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈðɛm/.

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 4198, this pair ranks #519,689 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Frequency comparison

teen#4,127
them#71

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "teen" and "them" be used interchangeably?
No, "teen" and "them" have distinct meanings and cannot be swapped without changing the meaning of a sentence. Understanding the specific definition and context for each word is essential for correct usage.

Remembering teen vs them

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “teen”; for a pronoun, it's “them”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “teen” 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 FrequencyWords open word-frequency list