they

\ðeɪ\

/\ðeɪ\/ pron

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“they” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #13,279. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#13,279
frequency rank, French
3,703
“T” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du pluriel ; ils, elles, iels.

Corpus desk

Index FR-they · they · French

they · rank #13,279 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #13,279
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 3,703
  • PHOTO-FINISH texture

Nearest frequency peer: texture (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « they »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « they » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

they vs ty
50% similar
they vs tué
25% similar
they vs tre
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for they
PropertyValue
Headwordthey
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPronoun
IPA\ðeɪ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#13,279
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « they »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.theyse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « texture » (#13,278), « think » (#13,280), « terminent » (#13,277). Parmi 3,703 lemmes en « T », « they » est au #13,279. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around they (IPA \ðeɪ\), apronoun. Corpus frequency is #13,279 among 3,703 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for they, with forms such as "htey", "tehy", and "theyy". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ty", "tué", "tre", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is they, spelled T-H-E-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du pluriel ; ils, elles, iels.
  2. 2
    Pronom personnel utilisé pour parler des gens en général, excluant le locuteur ; on, ils.
  3. 3
    Pronom personnel utilisé pour parler des gens en général, excluant le locuteur ; on, ils.
  4. 4
    Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du singulier utilisé pour parler d’une personne de genre inconnu ; il ou elle, iel, cette personne.
  5. 5
    Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du singulier utilisé pour parler d’une personne de genre inconnu ; il ou elle, iel, cette personne.
  6. 6
    Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du singulier utilisé pour parler d’une personne de genre inconnu ; il ou elle, iel, cette personne.
  7. 7
    Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du singulier utilisé pour parler d’une personne non-binaire ; iel, ael, al.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how they appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Fred and Jane? They’ve just arrived.
  2. Monarchs are resilient and adaptive but they continue to face challenges.

Synonyms

wehe or sheshe or heheshes/he(s)hecoeyfaeitperthonvexeze

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • htey
  • tehy
  • theyy
  • thhey
  • thye
  • tthey

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of they - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

htey2tehy2theyy1thhey1thye2tthey1
Edit distance from "they"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "they"?
"they" is spelled T-H-E-Y. The IPA pronunciation is \ðeɪ\.
What does "they" mean?
As a pronoun, "they" means: Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du pluriel ; ils, elles, iels.
What words are commonly confused with "they"?
"they" is commonly confused with "ty", "tué", "tre". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "they"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "they" is \ðeɪ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "they" come from?
"they" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "they", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

song#13,268shit#13,264work#13,297XXIe#13,298

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

pieux6 variantsMcDo6 variantslobby6 variantsjouée6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list