theyvstieConfusable pair

Which to use

“they” and “tie” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#11,171
“they” frequency rank
#22,479
“tie” frequency rank
33650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature they tie
Definition pronome pessoal de terceira pessoa plural referente a um grupo de pessoas sem especificação de gênero; eles ou elas aquele

Letter map: they vs tie

Shared letters muted; letters that set they and tie apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
they
3 ch
tie

Corpus notes: they and tie

they and tie are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

they is recorded at frequency rank #11,171, classified as apron. tie is at rank #22,479, tagged as apron, pronounced /ˈtje/.

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 33650, this pair ranks #33,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of they vs tie

Shared letters: et. Private to "they": hy. Private to "tie": i.

"they" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "tie" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • theyhtey · tehy · theyy · thhey · thye · tthey

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "they" and "tie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "they" vs "tie" - which ranks higher?
"they" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,171 in our Portuguese list, against #22,479 for "tie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "they" and "tie". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "they" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,798 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "they" and "tie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tie vs tique". 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 #33,798 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