they

pron

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“they” has 6 generated spelling variants in the Portuguese index at frequency #11,171. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#11,171
frequency rank, Portuguese
917
“T” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas

Corpus desk

Index PT-they · they · Portuguese

they · rank #11,171 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #11,171
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-MID 917
  • PHOTO-FINISH terraço

Nearest frequency peer: terraço (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pares de rank junto ao íman ortográfico “they”

Mesma faixa de raridade: útil se um typo cair num lema vizinho

corpus weight

What this shows “they” está entre estes pares FrequencyWords; a profundidade de typo mede-se à parte no gráfico de distância de edição.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

they vs ty
50% similar
they vs tre
50% similar
they vs try
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for they
PropertyValue
Headwordthey
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechPronoun
Letters4
Frequency rank#11,171
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequência do íman ortográfico “they”

A frequência vai do punhado de palavras do dia a dia (esquerda) à cauda longa quase nunca usada (direita).theycai aqui:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Os ticks avançam em logaritmo; cada um é da ordem de dez vezes mais raro. Na mesma faixa de raridade aparecem “terraço” (#11,170), “town” (#11,172), “terapeuta” (#11,168). Entre 917 lemas com “T”, “they” fica em #11,171. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around they, apronoun. Corpus frequency is #11,171 among 917 “T” headwords. Wiktionary lists 2 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

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

  1. 1
    pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas
  2. 2
    pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa singular referente a indivíduo sem especificação de gênero; ele ou ela

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how they appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. The people elected the president because they believed in him.
  2. Anyone can travel there as long as they have a passport.

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.

htey2tehy2theyy1thhey1thye2tthey1
Edit distance from "they"

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

How do you spell "they"?
"they" is spelled T-H-E-Y.
What does "they" mean?
As a pronoun, "they" means: pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas
What words are commonly confused with "they"?
"they" is commonly confused with "ty", "tre", "try". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "they" come from?
"they" is a Portuguese word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "they", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

town#11,172sais#11,150voou#11,192hits#11,080

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

troço6 variantssueco6 variantsdawn6 variantsmars6 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list