Which to use
“ou” is a conjunction and “our” is a determiner - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #45
- “ou” frequency rank
- #9,528
- “our” frequency rank
- 9573
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ou | our |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Indique une disjonction inclusive sur plusieurs concepts quand la cohabitation des concepts est envisageable : un ou plus dans la liste sont envisageables à la fois. | Notre, nos |
Where the eye mixes ou and our
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between ou and our
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ou is \u\ while our is \aʊɚ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “ou” sits inside “our”, and the parts of speech differ too (conjunction vs determiner), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ou is recorded at frequency rank #45, classified as aconj, pronounced \u\. our is at rank #9,528, tagged as adet, pronounced \aʊɚ\.
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 9573, this pair ranks #416,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ou vs our
Shared letters: ou. Private to "ou": -. Private to "our": r.
"ou" · 2 letters · shape VV · "our" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ou" and "our" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "ou" or "our"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "our" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ou" and "our" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs our". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #416,174 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.