Which to use
“our” is a determiner and “ourse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,528
- “our” frequency rank
- #35,186
- “ourse” frequency rank
- 44714
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | our | ourse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Notre, nos | Femelle de l’ours. |
Where the eye mixes our and ourse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between our and ourse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: our is \aʊɚ\ while ourse is \uʁs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “our” sits inside “ourse”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44714, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
our is recorded at frequency rank #9,528, classified as adet, pronounced \aʊɚ\. ourse is at rank #35,186, 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 44714, this pair ranks #208,365 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of our vs ourse
Shared letters: oru. Private to "our": -. Private to "ourse": es.
"our" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "ourse" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ourse ← oruse · oures · ourrse · oursse · ousre · uorse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "our" for "ourse" ever safe?
Frequency check: "our" vs "ourse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "our" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ourse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #208,365 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "our" and "ourse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ourse vs oust". 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 #208,365 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.