their

See also: þeir

English

Alternative forms

• thair, theire, theyr, theyre, thir (archaic)

Etymology

From Old Norse þeirra. Replaced native Old English heora.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ðɛə(ɹ)/, /ðɛː(ɹ)/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ðɛɚ/
  • (unstressed) IPA^(key): /ðɚ/

• Audio (US) (stressed, /ðɛɚ/)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophones: there, they're

Determiner

their

1. Belonging to, from, of, or relating to, them (plural).

   they will meet tomorrow at their convenience

   this is probably their cat

   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Symbols”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book third, page 155:

     For all things, even Celestial Luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, have their rise, their culmination, their decline.

   • 2012 May 5, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport:

     For Liverpool, their season will now be regarded as a relative disappointment after failure to add the FA Cup to the Carling Cup and not mounting a challenge to reach the Champions League places.

   • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.

2. Belonging to someone (one person, singular), or occasionally to something.
   • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii], line 1172:

     There's not a man I meet but doth salute me
     As if I were their well-acquainted friend […]

   • 2006, St. John Ambulance, First on the Scene: Student Reference Guide, →ISBN, Lesson 2, page 3:

     Place the casualty on their back with feet and legs raised—this is called the shock position. [emphasis in original] Once the casualty is positioned, cover them to preserve body heat, but do not overheat.

   • 1980, Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book, page 112:

     I prefer to think that birds have a sufficiently developed sense of humour to enjoy the spectacle of a human being hunched beneath a bush kissing the back of their hand.

   • 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, (quoted edition: London: Bloomsbury, 2008, →ISBN, page 93):

     ‘I mean ... if somebody made a mistake,’ Harry went on, ‘and let something slip, I know they didn’t mean to do it. It’s not their fault,’ he repeated, again a little louder than he would usually have spoken.

   • 2021, Stern, Moore, Grundy, Young & Binzel, editor, The Pluto System after New Horizons, page 38:

     The only object ... showing the signature of N₂ in their spectra is Sedna.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:their.

Usage notes

• Regarding the use of singular their, see they.
• The words their, there, and they're are homophones in most English accents today. This often causes confusion between the three in writing.

Related terms

• they, them (personal pronouns, subject and object case)
• theirs (possessive pronoun)

Translations

belonging to them (plural)

• Arabic: لَهُم (lahum), ـهُمْ (ar) m (-hum), ـهُنَّ (ar) f (-hunna), ـهُمَا du (-humā)

  Egyptian Arabic: ـهم (-hum)

• Armenian: նրանց (nrancʻ), իրենց (hy) (irencʻ)

  Old Armenian: նոցա (nocʻa)

• Aromanian: (a) lor m or f
• Asturian: so (ast), sos (ast) pl
• Azerbaijani: onların
• Belarusian: іх (ix), і́хні (íxni), і́хны (íxny)
• Bulgarian: те́хен (téhen), им (bg) (im)
• Catalan: llur (ca)
• Cebuano: ila (preposed), nila (postposed)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: (formal, written) 他們的／他们的 (ta¹ mun⁴ dik¹), (vernacular) 佢哋嘅 (keoi⁵ dei⁶ ge³)

  Hokkien: 𪜶 (zh-min-nan) (in)

  Mandarin: 他們的／他们的 (zh) (tāmen de), 她們的／她们的 (zh) (tāmen de) (of females)

• Coptic: ⲡⲟⲩ m (pou), ⲧⲟⲩ f (tou), ⲛⲟⲩ m pl or f pl (nou)
• Czech: jejich (cs)
• Danish: deres (da), sin (da)
• Dutch: hun (nl)
• Egyptian: (Old and Middle Egyptian) (.sn), (Late Egyptian) (.w)
• Esperanto: ilia (eo), iliaj (eo) pl
• Faroese: teirra, hjá teimum, sín, hjá sær
• Finnish: (if owners are people) heidän (fi); (if owners are not people) niiden (fi), niitten (fi)
• French: leur (fr) sg, leurs (fr) pl
• Friulian: lôr
• Galician: seu (gl) m, súa f, seus m pl, súas f pl
• Georgian: მათი (mati), იმათი (imati), თავიანთი (tavianti)
• German: ihr (de), ihre (de)
• Gothic: 𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (seins)
• Greek:

  Ancient: αὐτῶν (autôn) (gen. of personal pronoun), τούτων (toútōn) (gen. of medial demonstrative), ἐκείνων (ekeínōn) (gen. of distal demonstrative), τῶνδε (tônde) (gen. of proximal demonstrative), σφῶν (sphôn) (gen. of personal pronoun), σφέτερος (sphéteros) (adjective)

• Hawaiian: (dual) ko lāua, kā lāua, (plural) ko lākou, kā lākou
• Hebrew: שלהם pl (shelahém)
• Hindi: उनका (hi) (unkā)
• Hungarian: -uk, -ük, -juk, -jük
• Icelandic: þeirra (is), sinn (is) m, sín (is) f, sitt (is) n
• Ido: lia (io)
• Interlingua: lor
• Irish: a (ga)
• Istriot: luri
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} il loro m sg, ^{(please verify)} la loro f sg, ^{(please verify)} i loro m pl, ^{(please verify)} le loro f pl, ^{(please verify)} loro (it)
• Japanese: 彼らの (ja) (かれらの, karera no)
• Kapampangan: karela, ila
• Khmer: របស់គេ (rɔbɑh kei)
• Korean: 그들의 (geudeurui)
• Kyrgyz: алардын (ky) (alardın)
• Latin: suus (la), illorum m or n, illarum f, eorum (la) m or n, earum (la) f, horum (la) m or n, harum (la) f
• Latvian: viņu (lv)
• Louisiana Creole French: yê
• Macedonian: нивен (niven)
• Maltese: tagħhom
• Maori: tā rāua (singular dominant referring to two people), tō rāua (singular subordinate referring to two people), ā rāua (plural dominant referring to two people), ō rāua (plural subordinate referring to two people), tā rātau (singular dominant referring to three or more people), tō rātau (singular subordinate referring to three or more people), ā rātau (plural dominant referring to three or more people), ō rātau (plural subordinate referring to three or more people)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: deres (no), sin (no) dems (nonstandard)

  Nynorsk: deira (nn), sin

• Occitan: lor (oc)
• Persian: ـشان (fa) (-e-šân)
• Pipil: in-
• Polish: ich (pl)
• Portuguese: seu (pt), seus (pt)
• Romani: lenqo m, lenqi f, lenqe pl
• Romanian: lor (ro) m or f, săi m, sale (ro) f
• Romansch: lur
• Russian: их (ru) (ix)
• Scots: thair
• Scottish Gaelic: aca, an, am
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: њихов

  Roman: njihov

• Sinhalese: ඔවුන්ගේ (owungē)
• Slovak: ich (sk), svoj
• Slovene: njíhov (sl)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: jeju (referring to two people or things), jich (referring to three or more people or things)

• Spanish: su (es) sg, sus (es) pl
• Swedish: deras (sv), sin (sv) (c, singular), sitt (sv) (n, singular), sina (sv) pl
• Tagalog: kanila (preposed), nila (postposed)
• Thai: ของเขา (kŏng kăo)
• Tlingit: has du
• Turkish: onların (tr)
• Ukrainian: їх (jix), ї́хній (jíxnij)
• Urdu: ان کا (un kā)
• Venetian: so (vec), suo (vec)
• Vietnamese: của họ
• Volapük: (masculine) omsik (vo), (feminine) ofsik, (neuter or of mixed or unspecified gender) onsik (vo)
• Walloon: leu (wa) c, leus (wa) c pl
• Welsh: eu
• West Frisian: har, harren
• Yiddish: זייער (zeyer)
• Yoruba: wọn
• Zulu: possessive concord + -bo class 2 (usually for people), -yo class 4, -wo class 6, -zo class 8, -zo class 10

belonging to someone of unspecified gender (singular)

• Esperanto: ria (eo)
• Finnish: hänen (fi)
• German: sier (de), siere (nonstandard, neologism)
• Hungarian: -a (hu), -e (hu), -ja, -je
• Icelandic: þess (is) n
• Ido: lua (io)
• Spanish: su (es)
• Swahili: -ake
• Swedish: hens (sv)
• Volapük: onik (vo), ona
• Welsh: ei

Adverb

their

1. Misspelling of there.

Contraction

their

1. Misspelling of they’re.

See also

English personal pronouns

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.

			personal pronoun			possessive pronoun	possessive determiner
			subjective	objective	reflexive
first person	singular		I me (colloquial)	me	myself me mysen	mine	my mine (before vowels, archaic) me
	plural		we	us	ourselves ourself oursen	ours	our
second person	singular	standard, formal	you	you	yourself yoursen	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		archaic, informal	thou	thee	thyself theeself thysen	thine	thy thine (before vowels)
	plural	standard	you ye (archaic)	you	yourselves	yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)	your
		colloquial	you all y'all you guys	you all y'all you guys	y'allselves	y'all's you guys' your guys' (proscribed)	y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' (proscribed)
		informal / dialectal	(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person	singular	masculine	he	him	himself hisself (archaic) hissen	his hisn (obsolete outside dialects)	his
		feminine	she	her	herself hersen	hers hern (obsolete outside dialects)	her
		neuter	it hit	it hit	itself hitself	its his (archaic)	its his (archaic) hits
		genderless	they	them	themself, themselves	theirs	their
		genderless, nonspecific (formal)	one	one	oneself	–	one's
	plural		they	them hem, 'em	themselves theirsen	theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)	their

Anagrams

• Erith, Reith, Rieth, Thier, rithe, tehri, theri-

Middle English

Determiner

their

1. Alternative form of þeir

Scottish Gaelic

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /heɾʲ/
• (Uist) IPA^(key): [veɾʲ]

Verb

their

1. future of abair

Usage notes

• The dependent form is abair.
• Canaidh is more frequently used by most speakers nowadays.