Which to use
“thay” is an article and “them” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,958
- “thay” frequency rank
- #71
- “them” frequency rank
- 44029
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thay | them |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronunciation spelling of the. | Those ones. |
Letter map: thay vs them
Shared letters muted; letters that set thay and them apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: thay vs them
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: thay is anarticle and themapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thay is recorded at frequency rank #43,958, classified as anarticle. 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 44029, this pair ranks #234,374 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thay vs them
Shared letters: ht. Private to "thay": ay. Private to "them": em.
"thay" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "thay" and "them" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "thay" or "them" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "thay" and "them". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "thay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "them" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #234,374 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thay" and "them" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thay vs Trav". 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 #234,374 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.