Which to use
“they” is a pronoun and “thu” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,279
- “they” frequency rank
- #48,228
- “thu” frequency rank
- 61507
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | they | thu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du pluriel ; ils, elles, iels. | Forme mutée de tu par spirantisation. |
Where the eye mixes they and thu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between they and thu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: they is \ðeɪ\ while thu is \θɨː\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
they is recorded at frequency rank #13,279, classified as apron, pronounced \ðeɪ\. thu is at rank #48,228, tagged as anoun, pronounced \θɨː\.
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 61507, this pair ranks #91,885 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of they vs thu
Shared letters: ht. Private to "they": ey. Private to "thu": u.
"they" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "thu" · 3 letters · shape CCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- they ← htey · tehy · theyy · thhey · thye · tthey
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "they" for "thu" ever safe?
Which is more common, "they" or "thu"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "they" and "thu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "they" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "thu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #91,885 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "they" and "thu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "thu vs tif". 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 #91,885 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.