ossvsourConfusable pair

Quick tell: oss is a noun, our is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“oss” is a noun and “our” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,375
“oss” frequency rank
#8,607
“our” frequency rank
49982
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oss our
Definition der Knochen unser

Letter map: oss vs our

Shared letters muted; letters that set oss and our apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
oss
3 ch
our

Role in the sentence - oss and our

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: oss is anoun and ourapronoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49982, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oss is recorded at frequency rank #41,375, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. our is at rank #8,607, tagged as apron, pronounced [aʊə].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 49982, this pair ranks #1,191,027 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oss vs our

Shared letters: o. Private to "oss": s. Private to "our": ru.

"oss" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "our" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "oss" for "our" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oss" is a noun and "our" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "oss" or "our"?
"our" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,607 in our German list, against #41,375 for "oss". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "oss" and "our". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oss" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "our" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,191,027 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oss" and "our" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oss vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,191,027 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list