They

From open-dictionary.com - the free dictionary.

Table of contents

1 Pronunciation 2 Personal pronoun 2.1 Usage notes 2.2 Translations

Pronunciation

• AHD: /thā/
• IPA: /ðeɪ/
• SAMPA: /DeI/

Personal pronoun

The third person, nominative case, usually plural, but sometimes used incorrectly in the singular when the gender is unknown. (Objective case: them, possessive: their, possessive noun; theirs, reflexive: themselves.)

1. The third person, they refers to a group of others.

   Fred and Jane? They just arrived.

2. An indefinite pronoun having a vague meaning of "people" or "some people".

   They say it's a good place to live.

   They didn't have computers in the old days.

   They should do something about this.

• Another indefinite pronoun is one, but the two words do not mean the same and are rarely interchangeable.

Usage notes

• incorrect: If a child is too short for the rollercoaster, they will not be allowed to ride. (The subject [singular] and the personal pronoun [plural] do not agree in number.)
• correct options:
  • If children are too short for the rollercoaster, they will not be allowed to ride.
  • If a child is too short for the rollercoaster, she will not be allowed to ride.
  • If a child is too short for the rollercoaster, he will not be allowed to ride.
  • If a child is too short for the rollercoaster, it will not be allowed to ride.

Translations

• Arabic: هُمَا (húmaː) dual, هُمُ / هُمْ (hum/húmu) pl, هُنَّ (húnna) f/pl
• Bulgarian: те (te)
• Chinese: 他们, 她们, 它们, 人们
• Czech: oni, ony
• Dutch: zij, ze
• Dyirbal: (no third-person pronoun)
• Esperanto: ili
• Finnish: he (1, of people), ne (1, of things and animals)
• Fijian: rau (dual), iratou (paucal), ira (pl)
• French: ils m, elles f
• German: sie
• Greek: αυτοί / αυταί / αυτά (aftí/afté/aftá) m/f/n
• Hausa: súu (independent form)
• Hawaiian: lāua dual, lākou pl
• Hebrew: הם (hēm) m, הן (hēn) f
• Hungarian: ők
• Ido: li, ili m, eli f, oli things
• Indonesian: mereka
• Interlingua: illes m (a group with at least one male), illas f (a group of females), illos n (a group of things) (1); uno, on (2)
• Italian: essi, loro
• Japanese: 彼ら / 彼等 (かれら, karéra)
• Korean: 그들 (geudeul)
• Polish: oni m, one (nonmasculine)
• Portuguese: eles m, elas f
• Quechua: paykuna
• Romanian: ei m, ele f
• Russian: они (oní)
• Slovene: oni
• Spanish: ellos m, ellas f
• Swahili: wao
• Swedish: de, dom
• Tagalog: nila (ng form), kanila (sa form), sila (unmarked form)
• Thai: พวกเขา (puak-kao)
• Tok Pisin: ol
• Vietnamese: họ
• !Xũ: si (people), hi (animals, things)
• Yoruba: wọ́n (weak pronoun), àwọn (strong pronoun)