they
The verdict
“they” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #11,171 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a pronoun.
- #11,171
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | they |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Pronoun |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #11,171 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “they” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for they is 4 letters long, classified as a pronoun. Corpus data places it at rank #11,171 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for they, with forms such as "htey", "tehy", and "theyy". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ty", "tre", "try", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is they, spelled T-H-E-Y.
Definition
- 1pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas
- 2pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa singular referente a indivíduo sem especificação de gênero; ele ou ela
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 - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “they”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is T-H-E-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Don't mix it up with “ty” - see the side-by-side comparison. they vs ty
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.