Which to use
“the” is an article and “they” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #93
- “the” frequency rank
- #11,171
- “they” frequency rank
- 11264
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | the | they |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | o (artigo definido masculino singular) | pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas |
Letter map: the vs they
Shared letters muted; letters that set the and they apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for the / they
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: the is anarticle and theyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “the” sits inside “they”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
the is recorded at frequency rank #93, classified as anarticle, pronounced /ðə/ (fraco, ou antes de consoante); /ðiː/ (enfático, ou antes de vogal). they is at rank #11,171, tagged as apron.
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 11264, this pair ranks #61,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of the vs they
Shared letters: eht. Private to "the": -. Private to "they": y.
"the" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "they" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- they ← htey · tehy · theyy · thhey · thye · tthey
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "the" and "they" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "the" or "they"?
After this comparison
Pair "the" vs "they" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "the" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "they" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "the" and "they" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "teem vs they". 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 #61,622 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.