ouivsourWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: oui is a intj, our is a determiner, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“oui” is an intj and “our” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,386
“oui” frequency rank
#76
“our” frequency rank
44462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature oui our
Definition Synonym of yes. Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our).

Where the eye mixes oui and our

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. oui (VVV) and our (VVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
oui
3 ch
our

Why the eye confuses oui with our

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: oui is /wiː/ while our is /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “oui” becomes r in “our”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oui is recorded at frequency rank #44,386, classified as anintj, pronounced /wiː/. 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 44462, this pair ranks #230,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oui vs our

Shared letters: ou. Private to "oui": i. Private to "our": r.

"oui" · 3 letters · shape VVV  ·  "our" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "oui" and "our" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "oui" is an intj and "our" a determiner, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "oui" or "our"?
"our" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our English list, against #44,386 for "oui". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oui" 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 #230,326 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oui" and "our" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "omi vs oui". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #230,326 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list