Which to use
“ould” is an adjective and “our” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,397
- “ould” frequency rank
- #76
- “our” frequency rank
- 48473
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ould | our |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pronunciation spelling of old. | Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our). |
Where the eye mixes ould and our
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ould runs 4 letters (VVCC) 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 ould with our
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ould is /aʊld/ while our is /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ould is recorded at frequency rank #48,397, classified as anadj, pronounced /aʊld/. 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 48473, this pair ranks #192,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ould vs our
Shared letters: ou. Private to "ould": dl. Private to "our": r.
"ould" · 4 letters · shape VVCC · "our" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ould ← oudl · ouldd · oulld · uold
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ould" and "our" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "ould" vs "our" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ould" and "our" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ould" 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 #192,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ould" and "our" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oui vs ould". 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 #192,768 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.