Which to use
“they” is a pronoun and “très” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,279
- “they” frequency rank
- #78
- “très” frequency rank
- 13357
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | they | très |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronom personnel sujet de la troisième personne du pluriel ; ils, elles, iels. | Beaucoup, au plus haut point (devant un adjectif ou un adverbe). |
Where the eye mixes they and très
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses they with très
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: they is \ðeɪ\ 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 (pronoun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13357, 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\. 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 13357, this pair ranks #401,341 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of they vs très
Shared letters: t. Private to "they": ehy. Private to "très": rsè.
"they" · 4 letters · shape CCVV · "très" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- they ← htey · tehy · theyy · thhey · thye · tthey
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "they" and "très" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "they" vs "très" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "they" 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 #401,341 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "they" and "très" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "they 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 #401,341 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.