ourvsovConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#76
“our” frequency rank
#30,526
“ov” frequency rank
30602
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature our ov
Definition Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our). Alternative spelling of of.

Letter map: our vs ov

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

3 ch
our
2 ch
ov

Part-of-speech tell for our / ov

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: our is adeterminer and ovapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

our is recorded at frequency rank #76, classified as adet, pronounced /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/. ov is at rank #30,526, tagged as aprep.

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 30602, this pair ranks #353,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of our vs ov

Shared letters: o. Private to "our": ru. Private to "ov": v.

"our" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "ov" · 2 letters · shape VC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "our" for "ov" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "our" is a determiner and "ov" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "our" or "ov"?
"our" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #76 in our English list, against #30,526 for "ov". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "our" and "ov".

  • Full dictionary entry for "our" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ov" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #353,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "our" and "ov" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "omi vs ov". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #353,222 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