Which to use
“these” is a noun and “they” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,727
- “these” frequency rank
- #11,171
- “they” frequency rank
- 29898
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | these | they |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | vide tese | pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas |
Letter map: these vs they
Shared letters muted; letters that set these and they apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Role in the sentence - these and they
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: these is anoun and theyapronoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
these is recorded at frequency rank #18,727, classified as anoun. 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 29898, this pair ranks #38,633 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of these vs they
Shared letters: eht. Private to "these": s. Private to "they": y.
"these" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "they" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "these" for "they" ever safe?
Which is more common, "these" or "they"?
After this comparison
Pair "these" vs "they" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "these" 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 #38,633 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "these" 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 #38,633 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.