you's vs yours, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“you's” is a contraction and “yours” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,483
“you's” frequency rank: #1,849
“yours” frequency rank: 43332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	you's	yours
Definition	Contraction of you + is.	That or those belonging to you; the possessive second-person singular pronoun used without a following noun.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set you's and yours apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

you's

5 ch

yours

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: you's is acontraction and yoursapronoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - ' in “you's” becomes r in “yours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

you's is recorded at frequency rank #41,483, classified as acontraction. yours is at rank #1,849, tagged as apron, pronounced /jɔː(ɹ)z/.

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 43332, this pair ranks #240,998 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of you's vs yours

Shared letters: osuy. Private to "you's": -. Private to "yours": r.

"you's" · 4 letters · shape VVVC · "yours" · 5 letters · shape VVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

yours ← oyurs · yorus · yourrs · yourss · yousr · yuors · yyours

Frequency comparison

you's#41,483

yours#1,849

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "you's" and "yours" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "you's" is a contraction and "yours" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "you's" or "yours"?

"yours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,849 in our English list, against #41,483 for "you's". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering you's vs yours

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a contraction, it's “you's”; for a pronoun, it's “yours”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “you's” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable