therevstheyTell them apart

Quick tell: there is a adverb, they is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“there” is an adverb and “they” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,584
“there” frequency rank
#11,171
“they” frequency rank
20755
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature there they
Definition aí, nesse local (perto do interlocutor): pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas

Letter map: there vs they

Shared letters muted; letters that set there and they apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
there
4 ch
they

Role in the sentence - there and they

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: there is anadverb and theyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

there is recorded at frequency rank #9,584, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈðɛɹ/. 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 20755, this pair ranks #49,680 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of there vs they

Shared letters: eht. Private to "there": r. Private to "they": y.

"there" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "they" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • therehtere · tehre · theer · therre · thhere · three · tthere
  • theyhtey · tehy · theyy · thhey · thye · tthey

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "there" and "they" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "there" is an adverb and "they" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "there" or "they" show up more?
"there" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,584 in our Portuguese list, against #11,171 for "they". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "there" and "they".

  • Full dictionary entry for "there" 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 #49,680 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "there" 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 #49,680 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list