Are or our?
are is a verb meaning “second-person singular simple present of be”; our is a determiner meaning “Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our)”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) are is about 4.0 times as common as our.
What is the difference between are and our?
| are | our | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | determiner, suffix, noun |
| Meaning | Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our) Belonging to us, including the person(s) being addressed (inclusive our) UKUsed to form abstract nouns of state, quality, or action from Latin or French roots | |
| Example | Mary, where are you going? | Sorry, you're not invited to our party |
| Forms | none | wor |
| Pronunciation | /ɛə/ /ɛː/ /ɛəɹ/ | /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/ /ɑː(ɹ)/ /ˈwɔː/ |
| In writing | 5,495 times per million words | 1,380 times per million words |
Sources: are and our in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of are and our
are
- 1
Initialism of advance reader’s edition
our
- 1
Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our)
Sorry, you're not invited to our party
- 2
UKUsed to form abstract nouns of state, quality, or action from Latin or French roots
colour, favour, honour, labour, valour
- 3
Pronunciation spelling of hour
- 4
Belonging to us, including the person(s) being addressed (inclusive our)
We must try to save our marriage for the sake of our children
- 5
Of, from, or belonging to any entity that the speaker is a part of or identifies with, such as place of employment or education, nation, region, language, etc
Our safety record at ABC Widgets is very good
- 6
Belonging to people in general
As we get older, our reactions get slower
- 7
colloquialBelonging to everyone being addressed
How are we all tonight? Have we got our happy faces on?
- 8
colloquialBelonging to an individual being addressed; used especially of a person in the speaker's care, or to whom advice or instruction is being given
How are we feeling this morning, Mrs Miggins? Have we taken our tablets yet?
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, are or our?
are appears 5,495 times per million words; our 1,380 times per million words.
are 5,495 times per million wordsour 1,380 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search are vs our?
“are vs our” is searched about 1,000 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“our vs are”, “are or our”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.