obvsourTell them apart

Which to use

“ob” and “our” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,692
“ob” frequency rank
#7,958
“our” frequency rank
36650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ob our
Definition eu, pronome pessoal do caso nominativo da primeira pessoa do singular; nosso, nossos, da gente

Where the eye mixes ob and our

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

2 ch
ob
3 ch
our

Visual trap between ob and our

A purely visual mix-up. ob (/ob/) and our (/aʊɚ/, SAMPA: /aU@`/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ob is recorded at frequency rank #28,692, classified as apron, pronounced /ob/. our is at rank #7,958, tagged as apron, pronounced /aʊɚ/, SAMPA: /aU@`/.

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 36650, this pair ranks #30,103 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ob vs our

Shared letters: o. Private to "ob": b. Private to "our": ru.

"ob" · 2 letters · shape VC  ·  "our" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ob" and "our" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ob/ versus /aʊɚ/, SAMPA: /aU@`/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ob" or "our" show up more?
"our" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,958 in our Portuguese list, against #28,692 for "ob". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ob" 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 #30,103 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ob" and "our" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ob vs oni". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,103 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list