Teh

"Teh" is a common misspelling of the, originating from a common typographical error. This typo eventually became a part of Internet slang.

As a typo

It is one of the words in the auto-correct lists of spellcheckers in popular word processing applications, such as Microsoft Word, OpenOffice.org Writer, Pages, or Corel WordPerfect. It happens primarily for some, because the T and E are typed by the left hand on adjacent fingers in Qwerty, while the H is typed by the right, and in rapid typing, the T and E are often typed by the left hand in a drumming motion before the right can get the H in between the two. Conversely, overcompensating with the right hand can result in the misspelling "hte", which is also found in auto-corrects.

As slang

The widespread popularity of purposely using teh on Internet forums and other forms of communication was popularized by the fictitious character JeffK, of the humour website Something Awful, who often misspelled words on his homepage in a parody of a certain stereotype of Internet user.

In the online slang known as Leet, it is deliberately used in place of the, and occasionally spelled t3h with a numeral 3 in place of e. Teh and t3h are the traditional spellings of the in the phrase "ph33r t3h ..." ("Fear the...").

Grammatical properties

As slang, grammatical usage of the word teh is somewhat fluid. The following section is preventative, not punitive:

Besides being an alternate spelling of the, teh also has grammatical properties not generally applied to the; in general, it is used somewhat like an intensified "the". It can be used with proper names, as in "teh John"; compare the usage of the definite article in Greek: ο Ιωαννης (o Ioannes), literally "the John". A similar usage comes from colloquial German, where the definite article is used as a specifier to modify the noun: "Der Johann", again literally, "the John", could be used to identify John, and not Phil, as the subject performing a certain action. In Latin, the similar word ille and its declensions, which was at first an intensified article usually translated as "that", is the source of the derivations of the simple word for "the" and the personal pronouns (he, etc.) in the languages derived from Latin.

Furthermore, teh is sometimes used in front of a verb in a novel form of gerund. The best-known example of this is the word "suck". Thus, the phrase "this sucks" can be converted into "this is teh suck"; the word pwn can be similarly converted (teh pwn). The later phrase is primarily used by the computer gaming community, and often intended humorously.

In English, "the" can be used as an intensifier for the superlative form of adjectives; compare "that is best" and "that is the best." Teh has a similar use as an intensifier for unmodified adjectives, generally marking a sarcastic tone. For example, "that is teh lame" translates as "that is the lamest." This is similar to the use of the definite article lo in Spanish. For example, "Soy lo mejor" (I am the best) and "I am teh good". This contrasts with the use of the in English to construct mass nouns (substantives) from adjectives, as in "blessed are the meek," where the meek denotes a class of people who are meek, or perhaps "teh humble".