Which to use
“young” is an adjective and “yours” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #364
- “young” frequency rank
- #1,849
- “yours” frequency rank
- 2213
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | young | yours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | In the early part of growth or life; born not long ago. | 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 young and yours apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: young is /jʌŋ/ while yours is /jɔː(ɹ)z/. 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 (adjective vs pronoun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
young is recorded at frequency rank #364, classified as anadj, pronounced /jʌŋ/. 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 2213, this pair ranks #525,560 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of young vs yours
Shared letters: ouy. Private to "young": gn. Private to "yours": rs.
"young" · 5 letters · shape VVVCC · "yours" · 5 letters · shape VVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "young" and "yours" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "young" or "yours"?
Remembering young vs yours
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “young”; for a pronoun, it's “yours”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “young” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable