The or thee?
the is an article meaning “...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the…”; thee is a verb meaning “To address (a person) using the pronoun thee”. Use the as an article and thee as a verb. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) the is about 4,898 times as common as thee.
What is the difference between the and thee?
| the | thee | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | article, adverb, preposition, pronoun, prefix | pronoun, verb, noun |
| Meaning | ...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives | To address (a person) using the pronoun thee To use the word thee The letter ⟨(⟩, which stands for the th sound /ð/ in Pitman shorthand |
| Example | I’m reading the book Mary reviewed. (Compare I’m reading a book Mary reviewed.) | none recorded |
| Forms | da, d', teh, de, t', th' | thees, theeing, theed |
| Pronunciation | /ðə/ /ði/ [ðɪj] /ðiː/ | /ðiː/ /θiː/ |
| In writing | 53,703 times per million words | 11 times per million words |
Sources: the and thee in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of the and thee
the
- 1
...because it has already been mentioned, is to be completely specified in the same sentence, or very shortly thereafter
I’m reading the book Mary reviewed. (Compare I’m reading a book Mary reviewed.)
- 2
With a comparative or with more and a verb phrase, establishes a correlation with one or more other such comparatives
The hotter(,) the better. (comma usually omitted in such very short expressions)
- 3
For each; per
valued at half a pound the bushel; paying seven dollars the year interest
- 4
Early Modern form of thee
- 5
god or deity
- 6
Used before a noun designating something considered to be unique, or of which there is only one at a time
No one knows how many galaxies there are in the universe
- 7
With a comparative, and often with for it, indicates a result more like said comparative. This can be negated with none
It was a difficult time, but I’m the wiser for it
- 8
Used to indicate a certain example of (a noun) which is usually of most concern or most common or familiar
No one in the whole country had seen it before
thee
- 1
To address (a person) using the pronoun thee
- 2
The letter ⟨(⟩, which stands for the th sound /ð/ in Pitman shorthand
- 3
Honorific alternative letter-case form of thee, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context
- 4
To use the word thee
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, the or thee?
the appears 53,703 times per million words; thee 11 times per million words.
the 53,703 times per million wordsthee 11 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search the vs thee?
“the vs thee” is searched about 720 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“thee vs the”, “the or thee”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.