Which to use
“our” is a determiner and “out” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,528
- “our” frequency rank
- #4,007
- “out” frequency rank
- 13535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | our | out |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Notre, nos | Hors des limites du terrain. |
Where the eye mixes our and out
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses our with out
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: our is \aʊɚ\ while out is \awt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “our” becomes t in “out”, and the parts of speech differ too (determiner vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13535, 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\. out is at rank #4,007, tagged as anadj, pronounced \awt\.
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 13535, this pair ranks #400,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of our vs out
Shared letters: ou. Private to "our": r. Private to "out": t.
"our" · 3 letters · shape VVC · "out" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "our" for "out" ever safe?
Frequency check: "our" vs "out" - 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 "out" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,600 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "our" and "out" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs our". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #400,600 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.