they

/\ðeɪ\/ pron

Letters

4 characters

Frequency Rank

#13,279

in French word usage

Misspellings

6

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

they is aFrenchpron. It means: Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du pluriel ; ils, elles, iels. Pronounced \ðeɪ\. Often confused with ty and tué.

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

Frequency rank visualization

Position of they in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for they is 4 letters long, classified as apron, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ðeɪ\. Corpus data places it at rank #13,279 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 6 documented wrong-spelling variants for they, with forms such as "htey", "tehy", and "theyy". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, 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.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is they, spelled T-H-E-Y, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

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.

Synonyms

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: htey,tehy,theyy,thhey,thye,tthey

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for they

Misspelling Variants of "they"

htey4tehy4theyy5thhey5thye4tthey5
Misspelling Variants of "they"

Frequency rank: #13,279 in French

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 pron, "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. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter T in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.