theirvsthereWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: their is a adjective, there is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“their” is an adjective and “there” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,269
“their” frequency rank
#13,571
“there” frequency rank
32840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature their there
Definition Su, sus (de ellos o de ellas, o de una persona cuando no se conoce su sexo). Ahí, allí, allá.

Same sound, different letters: their vs there

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
their
5 ch
there

Same sound, different spelling - their / there

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: their and there carry the same recorded pronunciation, /ðɛə(ɹ)/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anadverb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

their is recorded at frequency rank #19,269, classified as anadj, pronounced /ðɛə(ɹ)/. there is at rank #13,571, tagged as anadv, pronounced /ðɛə(ɹ)/.

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 32840, this pair ranks #199,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of their vs there

Shared letters: ehrt. Private to "their": i. Private to "there": -.

"their" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • theirhteir · tehir · theirr · theri · thheir · thier · ttheir
  • therehtere · tehre · theer · therre · thhere · tthere

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "their" and "there" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "their" is an adjective and "there" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "their" vs "there" - which ranks higher?
"there" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,571 in our Spanish list, against #19,269 for "their". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "their" / "there". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "their" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "there" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "their" and "there" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "their vs theme". 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 #199,923 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list