There

How to spell there

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce there

What does there mean?

1. adverbIn, at, or to that place; also used as a dummy subject to assert that something exists or happens.

There in a sentence

• Please put the book over there on the shelf.

• There is a meeting at three o'clock.

• We'll meet you there tomorrow.

• There are several options to choose from.

• I've never been there before.

Where does there come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word comes from Old English 'thaer' (sometimes written 'thar'), meaning 'in or at that place', and it belongs to the same family of demonstrative words as 'that' and 'the'. It shares its ancient pointing sense with 'here' and 'where', all of which carry the old place-marking ending '-ere'. From the start it did double duty, naming a physical location ('over there') and standing in as a dummy subject in sentences like 'there is hope'. The spelling has been remarkably stable for over a thousand years, which is precisely why it traps adults: 'there', 'their', and 'they're' all sound identical, so the eye must remember that 'there' carries the same 'here' inside it that signals place. Keeping the word 'here' in mind is the reliable cure for the homophone confusion.

How the word is built

• Adverb of place.

Words that sound like there

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• their: Belonging to or associated with the people or things previously mentioned.
• they're: A contraction of 'they are', used when a plural subject is doing or being something.