osvsoursTell them apart

Which to use

“os” and “ours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,632
“os” frequency rank
#4,358
“ours” frequency rank
6990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature os ours
Definition Élément du squelette des animaux vertébrés, fait de ce tissu dur et calcifié. Plantigrade, carnassier ou omnivore, à fourrure épaisse, de la famille des ursidés.

Where the eye mixes os and ours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
os
4 ch
ours

Visual trap between os and ours

A purely visual mix-up. os (\ɔs\) and ours (\uʁs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

os is recorded at frequency rank #2,632, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔs\. ours is at rank #4,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \uʁs\.

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 6990, this pair ranks #424,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of os vs ours

Shared letters: os. Private to "os": -. Private to "ours": ru.

"os" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "os" and "ours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɔs\ versus \uʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "os" or "ours"?
"os" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,632 in our French list, against #4,358 for "ours". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "os" and "ours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "os" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #424,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "os" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs os". 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 #424,595 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list