them

See also: thêm

English

Alternative forms

• dem (nonstandard)

Etymology

From Middle English þem, from Old Norse þeim.

Pronunciation

• (stressed) enPR: thĕm, IPA^(key): /ðɛm/
  • (stressed form, New York City) IPA^(key): [d̪ɛm]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (unstressed) enPR: thəm, IPA^(key): /ðəm/
  • (unstressed form, New York City) IPA^(key): [d̪ʌm]
  • (unstressed form, nonstandard, General American) IPA^(key): /ðʌm/

• Audio (US, unstressed form); “see them”:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛm

Pronoun

them (third-person, personal pronoun, objective case of they)

1. (in the plural) Those ones.
   1. Used as the direct object of a verb.

      She treated them for a cold.

   2. Used as the indirect object of a verb.

      She wrote them a letter.

   3. Used as the object of a preposition.

      Give it to them.

2. (in the singular) A single person, previously mentioned, especially if of unknown or non-binary gender.
   1. Used as the direct object of a verb.

      If a student has an inappropriate question, whatever you do, do not berate them.

      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 17:2–5:

        If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, […] [t]hen shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die.

      • 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.

      • 2007, J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, London: Bloomsbury, 2008, →ISBN, page 270:

        Someone in the crowd around the lifts called sycophantically, ‘Morning, Yaxley!’ Yaxley ignored them.

   2. Used as the indirect object of a verb.

      If one of my patients calls, please bring them their dinner.

   3. Used as the object of a preposition.

      If someone comes and asks for the ticket, just give it to them.

      • 2024 July 2, Rukiye Arslan, Derya Yanık, Raziye Pekşen Akça, “Investigation of Menstrual Hygiene and Self-Care Skills of Adolescent Girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mother Views”, in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, →DOI:

        Each adolescent girl with ASD has needs specific to her because each of them has variable characteristics and different degrees of sensory and perceptual difficulties.

3. (informal, in certain phrases, treated as singular) They or those.

   I know it seems unfair, but them's the rules.

Usage notes

• Regarding the use of singular them, see they.

Synonyms

• dem (nonstandard)
• em (colloquial)
• 'em (colloquial)
• hem (obsolete)

Related terms

• their
• theirs
• themself
• themselves
• they
• us-and-them-ism

 

Translations

third personal plural pronoun used after a preposition or as the object of a verb

• Albanian: ata (sq), ato (sq), atyre (sq)
• Arabic: ـهُم (ar) m pl (-hum), ـهُنَّ (ar) f pl (-hunna), ـهُمَا du (-humā), إِيَّاهُم m pl (ʔiyyāhum), إِيَّاهُنَّ f pl (ʔiyyāhunna), إيَّاهُمَا m du or f du (ʔiyyāhumā)

  Egyptian Arabic: ـهم (-hum)

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

  Old Armenian: նոցա (nocʻa), նոսա (nosa)

• Azerbaijani: onları (accusative), onlara (dative), onlarda (locative), onlarla (commitative), onlarsız (abessive)
• Bulgarian: тях (bg) (tjah), им (bg) (im)
• Burmese: သူတို့ (sutui.), သူများ (my) (su-mya:)
• Catalan: (accusative) els (ca) m, les (ca) f, (dative) els (ca)
• Chechen: царна (carna)
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 𪜶 (zh-min-nan) (in)

  Mandarin: 他們／他们 (zh) (tāmen) (human), 她們／她们 (zh) (tāmen) (human, female only), 牠們／它们 (zh) (tāmen) (animal), 它們／它们 (zh) (tāmen) (inanimate)

• Czech: jich (cs) (genitive, locative), nich (cs) (genitive, locative after preposition), jim (cs) (dative), nim (cs) (dative after preposition), je (cs) (accusative), ně (cs) (accusative after preposition), jimi (cs) (instrumental) nimi (cs) (instrumental after preposition)
• Danish: dem (da)
• Dutch: hen (nl) (esp. for direct objects), hun (nl) (esp. for indirect objects), ze (nl) (unemphatic)
• Esperanto: ili (eo), ilin (eo)
• Ewe: wo
• Faroese: teir (fo), tær (fo), tey (fo) (accusative case), teimum, teim (dative case)
• Finnish: heidät (fi), heitä (fi), heillä (fi), heille (fi), (inflected forms of he - "they", of which the ones listed are the most frequently used), heiltä (fi), niille (fi) (of things or informally of people), niitä (fi) (of things or informally of people)
• French: (accusative) les (fr), (dative) leur (fr), (after preposition or emphatic) eux (fr) m, (after preposition or emphatic) elles (fr) f
• Georgian: მათ (mat), იმათ (imat)
• German: ihnen (de) (dative), sie (de) (accusative)
• Haitian Creole: yo
• Hopi: pumuy
• Hungarian: őket (hu), azokat (hu)
• Ido: li (io), ili (io) m, eli (io) f, oli (io) n
• Indonesian: mereka (id)
• Irish: iad, iadsan (emphatic)

  Old Irish: s-, da-, -us

• Italian: (after preposition) loro (it), (indirect object) loro (it), (indirect object, emphatic) a loro, (indirect object with an imperative verb) loro (it), (direct object; enclitic) li (it) m, le (it) f, (direct object, emphatic) loro (it), (indirect object, colloquial; enclitic, becomes glie when used with a direct object) gli (it)
• Judeo-Italian: אֵיסִי (ʾesi /⁠essi⁠/)
• Kazakh: оларды (olardy)
• Kituba: bau
• Latin: see inflected plural forms of: is (la), ille (la), hic (la)
• Lingala: bangó
• Louisiana Creole French: yé
• Manx: ad (gv), adsyn (emphatic)
• Maori: rāua (referring to two people), rātau (referring to three or more people), rātou (referring to three or more people)
• Norwegian: dem (no)
• Pitcairn-Norfolk: dem
• Polish: ich (pl) m pl, je (pl) f pl
• Portuguese: os (pt) m pl (direct object), lhes (pt) m pl or f pl (dative), eles (pt) m pl (preposition), as (pt) f pl (direct object), elas (pt) f pl (preposition)
• Romanian: ei (ro) m pl (direct object) (stressed form), ele (ro) f pl (direct object) (stressed form), îi m pl (direct object) (unstressed form), le f pl (direct object) (unstressed form), lor (ro) m pl or f pl (indirect object) (stressed form), le m pl or f pl (indirect object) (unstressed form)
• Russian: их (ru) (ix) (direct object), им (ru) (im) (indirect object), (see они́ (ru) (oní) they for the complete declension)
• Scots: thaim
• Slovak: (dative) im, (accusative) ich (sk)
• Sorbian:

  Lower Sorbian: jej du, je pl (inanimate); jeju du, jich pl (animate)

• Spanish: a ellos m pl, a ellas f pl, los (es) m (accusative), las (es) f (accusative), les (es) n (accusative, neologism), les (es) (dative)
• Swedish: dem (sv)
• Turkish: onlar (tr)
• Ukrainian: їх (uk) (jix), їм (jim)
• Venetan: lori (vec)
• Wolof: leen
• Yoruba: wọ́n (following a complex verb or monosyllabic verb ending in a low- or mid-tone), wọn (following a monosyllabic verb ending in a high tone)
• Zulu: bona class 2 (usually for people), yona class 4, wona class 6, zona class 8, zona class 10

third-person singular pronoun of indeterminate gender

• Finnish: hänet (fi), häntä (fi), hänellä (fi), hänelle (fi), (inflected forms of hän - "he, she", of which the ones listed are the most frequently used) häneltä (fi), sitä (fi) (of things or informally of people), sille (fi) (of things or informally of people), hälle (poetic or dialectal), siltä (fi) (of things or informally of people)
• Portuguese: ile (pt), elu (pt)
• Spanish: le (es) n (neologism, dative or accusative)
• Swedish: hen (sv)

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

• Esperanto: (after preposition) ^{(please verify)} ili (eo), (indirect object) ^{(please verify)} al ili , (direct object) ^{(please verify)} ilin (eo)
• Japanese: ^{(please verify)} 彼らを (かれらを, karera o)
• Korean: ^{(please verify)} 그들을 (geudeureul), ^{(please verify)} 그들에게 (geudeurege)
• Spanish: (direct object) ^{(please verify)} les (es), ^{(please verify)} a ellos (es) m , (indirect object) ^{(please verify)} a ellas (es) f , ^{(please verify)} ellos (es) m, (after preposition) ^{(please verify)} ellas (es) f
• Swedish: ^{(please verify)} dem (sv)

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

Determiner

them

1. (dialectal or nonstandard) Those.

   Gimme two of them yellow ones.

   • 1835, John Pendleton Kennedy, Horse Shoe Robinson: A Tale of the Tory Ascendency:

     How would you like a scrummage, Andy, with them Scotchmen that stole your mother's chickens this morning?

   • 1915, C.J. Dennis, The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke, published 1916, page 13:

     The world 'as got me snouted jist a treat; / Crool Forchin's dirty left 'as smote me soul. / An' all them joys o' life I 'eld so sweet / Is up the pole.

   • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

     "I say it's a shame, Silas Linden, the way them children is treated."

   • 1956, Allen Ginsberg, “America”, in Howl and Other Poems (Pocket Poets Series), City Lights Books, →OCLC, page 33:

     America you don’t really want to go to war.
     America it's them bad Russians.
     Them Russians them Russians and them Chinamen. And them Russians.

   • 2005, Elmer Kelton, Sons of Texas, Tor/Forge, page 111:

     " […] Them two wild horses ain't fit to ride, and I been wonderin' how I was goin' to get you out of this place before them Spanish maybe circle back and finish the job."

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

Anagrams

• Meth., TEHM, meth, meth-, MHET, tehm

Albanian

Alternative forms

• thom
• tham

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *θēm-, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱens- (“to say, instruct, announce”). Cognate with Sanskrit शास्ति (śā́sti, “to instruct, advise, command”), and Latin cēnseō (“to give an opinion, to judge, guess, reckon”). Potentially a doublet of rrëfej.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [θem]

Verb

them (aorist thashë, participle thënë)

1. to say

Conjugation

Standard Albanian conjugation of them (active voice)

• Show compound tenses:  

		participle		thënë
		gerund		duke thënë
		infinitive		për të thënë
singular			plural
1st pers.	2nd pers.	3rd pers.	1st pers.	2nd pers.	3rd pers.
indicative	present	them	thua	thotë	themi	thoni	thonë
	imperfect	thosha	thoshe	thoshte	thoshim	thoshit	thoshin
	aorist	thashë	the	tha	thamë	thatë	thanë
perfect	kam thënë	ke thënë	ka thënë	kemi thënë	keni thënë	kanë thënë
past perfect	kisha thënë	kishe thënë	kishte thënë	kishim thënë	kishit thënë	kishin thënë
aorist II	pata thënë	pate thënë	pati thënë	patëm thënë	patët thënë	patën thënë
future1	do të them	do të thuash	do të thotë	do të themi	do të thoni	do të thonë
future perfect2	do të kem thënë	do të kesh thënë	do të ketë thënë	do të kemi thënë	do të keni thënë	do të kenë thënë
subjunctive	present	të them	të thuash	të thotë	të themi	të thoni	të thonë
imperfect	të thosha	të thoshe	të thoshte	të thoshim	të thoshit	të thoshin
perfect	të kem thënë	të kesh thënë	të ketë thënë	të kemi thënë	të keni thënë	të kenë thënë
past perfect	të kisha thënë	të kishe thënë	të kishte thënë	të kishim thënë	të kishit thënë	të kishin thënë
conditional1, 2	imperfect	do të thosha	do të thoshe	do të thoshte	do të thoshim	do të thoshit	do të thoshin
	past perfect	do të kisha thënë	do të kishe thënë	do të kishte thënë	do të kishim thënë	do të kishit thënë	do të kishin thënë
optative	present	thënça	thënç	thëntë	thënçim	thënçit	thënçin
perfect	paça thënë	paç thënë	pastë thënë	paçim thënë	paçit thënë	paçin thënë
admirative	present	thënkam	thënke	thënka	thënkemi	thënkeni	thënkan
	imperfect	thënkësha	thënkëshe	thënkësh	thënkëshim	thënkëshit	thënkëshin
perfect	paskam thënë	paske thënë	paska thënë	paskemi thënë	paskeni thënë	paskan thënë
past perfect	paskësha thënë	paskëshe thënë	paskësh thënë	paskëshim thënë	paskëshit thënë	paskëshin thënë
imperative	present	—	thuaj	—	—	thoni	—
1) indicative future identical with conditional present 2) indicative future perfect identical with conditional perfect

Derived terms

• kundërthem

Kalo Finnish Romani

Noun

them m

1. country, state

Derived terms

• Anglkaano them
• botnosko them
• daadesko them
• Danskako them
• Finitiko them
• Finnosko them
• Greekako them
• Gruopako them
• horttibkosko them
• Portiko them
• Sveediko them
• themmeskiero
• vildo them

 

References

• “them” in Finnish Romani-English Dictionary, ROMLEX – the Romani Lexicon Project, 2000.

Middle English

Etymology 1

Pronoun

them

1. Alternative spelling of þem (“them”)

Etymology 2

Determiner

them

1. Alternative spelling of þem (“the, that, this”)

Etymology 3

Noun

them

1. Alternative form of tem (“group”)

Etymology 4

Verb

them

1. Alternative form of temen (“to produce offspring”)

Mizo

Noun

them

1. part

Romani

Etymology

Inherited from Sanskrit *स्थाम्य (sthāmya).

Noun

them m (plural thema)

1. country

References

• Turner, Ralph Lilley (1969–1985) “*sthāmya”, in A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, London: Oxford University Press, page 794
• Yūsuke Sumi (2018) “them, ~a”, in ニューエクスプレスプラス　ロマ（ジプシー）語 (in Japanese), Tokyo: Hakusuisha, published 2021, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 156

Welsh Romani

Noun

them m (in the plural thema)

1. land, country
2. country (as opposed to town)
3. earth, world

Derived terms

• 'Måro Them
• 'Pre O Them
• Akala Thema
• Akava Them
• Angitrako Them
• Barenengo Them
• basavo phirimasko them
• bengesko them
• bita them
• Bålengo Them
• develesko them
• Dešnengo Them
• džambengo them
• Flumeriako Them
• Gaudrako Them
• Gaudrengo Them
• Guruvengo Them
• guruvesko them
• kekengo them
• Kial-Måresko Them
• Kialesko Them
• Klizinako Them
• Kålo Them
• Lovinako Them
• Marikiako Them
• Muzako Them
• någo them
• phabengo them
• rukhano them
• Slačengo Them
• Sutle-Måresko Them
• Talano Them
• talano them
• them kaj pračel o kham
• themeskero
• themesko
• Vangaresko Them
• vaver them
• vešlo them
• Vålšano Them
• Vålšenengo Them
• Vålšitika Them
• Xindo Them
• xoraxano them
• Xujimen Them
• Xåndžvalo Them
• Zuminako Them
• Čoxengo Them

 

References

• “them” in Welsh Romani-English Dictionary, ROMLEX – the Romani Lexicon Project, 2000.