Which to use
“our” is a determiner and “own” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #76
- “our” frequency rank
- #178
- “own” frequency rank
- 254
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | our | own |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Belonging to us, excluding the person(s) being addressed (exclusive our). | Belonging to; possessed; acquired; proper to; property of; titled to; held in one's name; under/using the name of. Often marks a possessive determiner as reflexive, referring back to the subject of the clause or sentence. |
Where the eye mixes our and own
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Look-alike desk: our vs own
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: our is /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/ while own is /əʊn/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 254, 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)/. own is at rank #178, tagged as anadj, pronounced /əʊn/.
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 254, this pair ranks #529,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of our vs own
Shared letters: o. Private to "our": ru. Private to "own": nw.
"our" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "own" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "our" for "own" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "our" or "own" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "our" and "own" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "our" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "own" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #529,676 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "our" and "own" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "omi vs own". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #529,676 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.