Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Them for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Welcome. Today's word is them — a pronoun, pronounced THEM, with the IPA /ðem/.
Narrator: Them is the object form of 'they'. It stands in for two or more people or things when they are receiving the action — 'I called them'.
Narrator: In plain terms, 'they' do the action and 'them' receive it: they helped us, and we thanked them in return.
Narrator: It comes from Old Norse þeim, borrowed into English long ago, gradually replacing the older native form to become our everyday them.
Narrator: Over time them also grew into a singular use for one person whose gender is unknown — 'someone left their bag, so I returned it to them'.
Narrator: So we give a gift to them, we invite them, we trust them — always as the receiver of the verb or the object of a preposition.
Narrator: Its register is fully neutral and everyday, though dropping the h sound — 'give 'em a call' — is a relaxed, informal touch.
Narrator: Remember it this way: them is the receiving they. They act; them are acted upon — the object on the other end of the verb.
Speaker A: Have you spoken to the neighbours yet? We really should invite them to the barbecue this weekend.
Speaker B: Good idea. Notice how 'them' is the object — they come to the barbecue, and we invite them.
Speaker A: True. So 'they helped me' uses they, but 'I thanked them' uses them, because they're on the receiving end.
Speaker B: Quick tip — use 'they' when they do the action, and 'them' when the action lands on them.
Speaker A: Right. And we can use them for one person too — 'if anyone calls, tell them I'm out'.
Speaker B: Exactly. That singular them is handy when you don't know if it's a he or a she — perfectly natural English.
Speaker A: People sometimes say 'me and them went' though — is that wrong?
Speaker B: Yes, that's a common slip. As the doers it should be 'they and I went'; 'them' is only for the receiving side.
Speaker A: Helpful. So I'll invite them, thank them, and let 'they' do the acting.
Speaker B: Perfect use — them always receives the action.
Speaker B: Today we'll use the word them to prompt an AI about handling many items at once — looping over them, updating them, filtering them.
Speaker A: Useful — apps deal with lists everywhere, so a them theme fits acting on many records cleanly and safely.
Speaker B: Let's start with bulk actions.
Prompt: Add checkboxes to the list so the user can select several items and act on them at once, with one bar to delete them, archive them, or tag them, and a clear count of how many are selected.
Speaker B: The word them tells the AI we are acting on the whole selected group, so it builds clean bulk actions, not one-by-one edits.
Speaker A: Useful. What about sorting?
Prompt: Take the user's tasks and sort them by due date, group them under Today, This Week, and Later, and let the user drag them between groups to reschedule them in one smooth motion.
Speaker B: Now the database — keep names plain.
Prompt: Design a database schema for orders and their items, link each order to the items inside it, and add an index so that loading an order and all of them together stays fast even with many rows.
Speaker A: Clear. Could one prompt build the whole tool?
Prompt: Build a simple contacts app where the user adds people, sees them in a searchable list, selects several of them, and emails them all at once, with a confirmation showing exactly how many will receive it.
Speaker B: For notifications, lean on the group.
Prompt: When new messages arrive, gather them into one grouped notification rather than buzzing for each, let the user tap to expand them, and mark them all as read with a single clear button.
Speaker A: One more — validation?
Prompt: Check all the form fields and, if any of them are empty, highlight them in red together, show one summary message listing them, and scroll to the first of them so the user can fix them quickly.
Speaker B: See the pattern: the word them steers the AI toward acting on many items together — looping, filtering, and bulk updates. Handy and memorable.
Speaker A: Love it. Them means the many being acted on — I'll keep it for bulk actions, lists, and group-update prompts.
Them — meaning in Arabic & definition More T courses GL Dictionary