Which to use
“occur” is a verb and “our” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,187
- “occur” frequency rank
- #76
- “our” frequency rank
- 3263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | occur | our |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To happen or take place. | Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our). |
Where the eye mixes occur and our
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. occur runs 5 letters (VCCVC) against our's 3 (VVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses occur with our
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: occur is /əˈkɜː/ while our is /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
occur is recorded at frequency rank #3,187, classified as averb, pronounced /əˈkɜː/. our is at rank #76, tagged as adet, pronounced /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/.
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 3263, this pair ranks #522,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of occur vs our
Shared letters: oru. Private to "occur": c. Private to "our": -.
"occur" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC · "our" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- occur ← cocur · occru · occurr · ocucr · ocur
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "occur" and "our" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "occur" or "our"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "occur" 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 #522,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "occur" and "our" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "omi vs our". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #522,631 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.