Which to use
“thee” is a pronoun and “tine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,748
- “thee” frequency rank
- #44,530
- “tine” frequency rank
- 51278
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | thee | tine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objective and reflexive case of thou. | A spike or point on an implement or tool, especially a prong of a fork or a tooth of a comb. |
Where the eye mixes thee and tine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. thee (CCVV) and tine (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: thee vs tine
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: thee is /ðiː/ while tine is /taɪn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
thee is recorded at frequency rank #6,748, classified as apron, pronounced /ðiː/. tine is at rank #44,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced /taɪn/.
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 51278, this pair ranks #166,830 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of thee vs tine
Shared letters: et. Private to "thee": h. Private to "tine": in.
"thee" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "tine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "thee" for "tine" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "thee" or "tine" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "thee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #166,830 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "thee" and "tine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tine vs tobe". 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 #166,830 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.