Which to use
“there” is an adverb and “those” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #57
- “there” frequency rank
- #133
- “those” frequency rank
- 190
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | there | those |
|---|---|---|
| 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 that |
Where the eye mixes there and those
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: there is /ðə(ɹ)/ while those is /ðəʊz/. 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 (adverb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 190, 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)/. those is at rank #133, tagged as adet, pronounced /ðəʊz/.
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 190, this pair ranks #529,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of there vs those
Shared letters: eht. Private to "there": r. Private to "those": os.
"there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "those" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV