themvstrèsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: them is a verb, très is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“them” is a verb and “très” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,418
“them” frequency rank
#78
“très” frequency rank
19496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature them très
Definition Dire. Beaucoup, au plus haut point (devant un adjectif ou un adverbe).

Where the eye mixes them and très

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
them
4 ch
très

Visual trap between them and très

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: them is \θem\ while très is \tʁɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

them is recorded at frequency rank #19,418, classified as averb, pronounced \θem\. très is at rank #78, tagged as anadv, pronounced \tʁɛ\.

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 19496, this pair ranks #372,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of them vs très

Shared letters: t. Private to "them": ehm. Private to "très": rsè.

"them" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "très" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • themhtem · tehm · themm · thhem · thme · tthem

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "them" for "très" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "them" is a verb and "très" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "them" vs "très" - which ranks higher?
"très" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #78 in our French list, against #19,418 for "them". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "them" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "très" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #372,987 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "them" and "très" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "them vs thug". 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 #372,987 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list