they

CEFRA1

/ˈðeɪ̯/

pronoun · determiner

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    pronoun

    Used to refer to more than one person or thing.

  2. 02

    pronoun

    Extra detail

    A single person, previously mentioned, whose gender is unknown, irrelevant, or (since 20th c.) non-binary.

Examples

  • Every person who is alone is alone because they are afraid of others.

  • They are too busy fighting against each other to care for common ideals.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5

Deep Dive

pronoun

Extra meanings

  1. People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker.

  2. A group of entities previously mentioned.

determiner

Extra meaning

  1. The, those.

More examples

In context

  • They planned to go hiking in the mountains this weekend.

  • Dogs may bark if they want to be fed.

  • Plants wilt if they are not watered.

Antonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

I saw the kids; blank can visit the museum tomorrow with their class.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

pronoun

From Middle English þei, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þeir, plural of the demonstrative sá which acted as a plural pronoun. Displaced native Middle English he from Old English hīe — which vowel changes had left indistinct from he (“he”) — by the 1400s, being readily incorporated alongside native words beginning with the same sound (the, that, this). Used as a singular pronoun since 1300, e.g. in the 1325 Cursor Mundi. The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (“they”), Faroese teir (“they”), Danish de (“they”), Swedish de (“they”), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)), whence also Old English þā (“those”) (wh...