their

See also: þeir

English

Alternative forms

• deir (pronunciation spelling)
• thair, theire, theyr, theyre, thir (archaic)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Germanic *þaizǭ

Proto-Norse ᚦᚨᛁᛉᛟ (þaiʀo /⁠þaizō⁠/)

Old Norse þeirader.

English their

From Old Norse þeira, þeirra. Replaced native Old English heora.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thâr, Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
• Homophones: they're, (pane–pain merger) there
• (UK)

  • Audio (UK); /ðɛːɹ/:

    (file)

  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ðɛə/
  • (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /ðɛː/
  • (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ðeɹ/
  • (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) enPR: thûr, IPA^(key): /ðɜː(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ðɛɚ/, (unstressed form) /ðɚ/

  • Audio (stressed form); /ðɛɚ/:

    (file)

• (Midwestern US) enPR: thär, IPA^(key): /ðɑː(ɹ)/
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)
• (Canada, Northwestern US) IPA^(key): [ðeːɹ]
• (Australia) IPA^(key): /ðeː/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) enPR: thîr, IPA^(key): /ðiə/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ðeə/
• (th-alveolarisation) IPA^(key): /zɛə(ɹ)/

Determiner

their

2. 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, 3rd book, 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^[1], volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 17 July 2020:

     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.

   • 2019 May 29, Amy Harmon, “Which Box Do You Check? Some States Are Offering a Nonbinary Option”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 8 June 2019:

     Proponents of adding a gender-neutral option to state identification documents say it would remove a form of discrimination against nonbinary people by providing them with the means to carry identification that matches their identity.

4. 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.

Derived terms

• everybody and their cousin, everyone and their cousin
• everybody and their dog, everyone and their dog
• everybody and their grandma, everyone and their grandma
• everybody and their mother, everyone and their mother
• everybody and their uncle, everyone and their uncle
• their ABC
• theirself
• theirselves

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, siaj (eo) (reflexive)
• 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
• Frisian:

  West Frisian: har, harren

• 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 Greek: 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: il loro m sg, la loro f sg, i loro m pl, le loro f pl, 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: yê
• Macedonian: нивен (niven)
• Maltese: tagħhom
• Māori: 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)
• Marathi: त्यांचा m (tyāñcā), त्यांचे n (tyāñce), त्यांची f (tyāñcī)
• Norwegian:

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

  Nynorsk: deira (nn), sin

• Occitan: lor (oc)
• Pannonian Rusyn: їх (jix)
• 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
• Romansh: lur
• Russian: их (ru) (ix), ихний (ru) (ixnij)
• Scots: thair
• Scottish Gaelic: aca, an, am
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: њихов

  Latin: 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 (single thing), sus (es) pl (multiple things)
• 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 (uk) (jix), ї́хній (jíxnij)
• Urdu: ان کا (un kā)
• Venetan: 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
• 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: háns (is)
• Ido: lua (io)
• Norwegian: hens (no), sin (no)
• Spanish: su (es) sg (single thing), sus (es) pl (multiple things)
• Swahili: -ake
• Swedish: hens (sv)
• Volapük: onik (vo), ona
• Welsh: ei

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Woiwurrung: ^{(please verify)} mallee goblin, ^{(please verify)} -dhan

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 ourn (obsolete outside dialects) our second person singular standard (historically formal) you you yourself yoursen yours yourn (obsolete outside dialects) your archaic (historically 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 yous you all y'all you guys yous y'allselves all yours y'all's you guys' your guys' all your y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' 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 genderless1 they them themself, themselves theirs their nonspecific (formal) one one oneself – one's plural they them hem, 'em themselves theirsen theirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects) their 1 See Appendix:English third-person singular pronouns for attested neopronouns.

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.