Which to use
“there” is an adverb and “these” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #57
- “there” frequency rank
- #94
- “these” frequency rank
- 151
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | there | these |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In or at a place or location (stated, implied or otherwise indicated) that is perceived to be away from, or at a relative distance from, the speaker (compare here). | plural of this |
Where the eye mixes there and these
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: there is /ðə(ɹ)/ while these is /ðiːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “there” becomes s in “these”, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
there is recorded at frequency rank #57, classified as anadv, pronounced /ðə(ɹ)/. these is at rank #94, tagged as adet, pronounced /ðiːz/.
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 151, this pair ranks #529,811 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of there vs these
Shared letters: eht. Private to "there": r. Private to "these": s.
"there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "these" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV