Is It Ours or *Our’s? | Meaning, Spelling & Examples

Ours is a first-person plural possessive pronoun. It’s sometimes written as “our’s”—with an apostrophe—but this spelling is incorrect.

Possession is typically indicated by adding ’s to a word, but possessive pronouns are an exception to this rule. This means that “our’s” is always incorrect. This is also true for other possessive pronouns, such as hers and theirs. A QuillBot grammar check will fix this and other common mistakes automatically.

Examples: Ours and our’s in a sentence
  • You paid for the food too! It’s not mine; it’s our’s!
  • You paid for the food too! It’s not mine; it’s ours!
  • Their project was not as good as our’s.
  • Their project was not as good as ours

Our or ours

The possessive pronoun ours is used to show ownership of something by you and another person. It’s related to the possessive adjective our. However, while our is used to modify a noun, ours is used to replace a noun.

Examples: Our or ours in a sentence
Did the company like our advice for their marketing campaign?

Samuel’s cat behaves way better than ours.

Ours, our’s or ours’

Ours is sometimes written as our’s or ours’ (with apostrophes), but both are incorrect. Ours is the only correct spelling.

Examples: Ours, our’s or ours’
Where is the car? I think the children have taken our’s without asking.
Where is the car? I think the children have taken ours’ without asking.
Where is the car? I think the children have taken ours without asking.

Frequently asked questions about ours or our's

Is it not ours or not our’s?

The correct version is not ours (without an apostrophe).

Ours and our’s are often confused, but “our’s” is never correct. Ours is a possessive pronoun and doesn’t take an apostrophe. This is also true for other possessive pronouns, such as hers and theirs.

Use QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker to avoid mistakes like these!

Is it belonging to ours or our’s?

Ours and our’s are often confused. In the case of “belonging to,” both “ours” and “our’s” are actually incorrect. The correct version is belonging to us.

  • Ours is used as a first-person plural possessive pronoun (e.g., “the dog is ours”).
  • Our’s is a common misspelling of this word and should be avoided.

This is also true for other possessive pronouns, such as hers and theirs.

Use QuillBot’s free Grammar Checker to avoid mistakes like these!

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Julia Merkus, MA

Julia has a bachelor in Dutch language and culture and two masters in Linguistics and Language and speech pathology. After a few years as an editor, researcher, and teacher, she now writes articles about her specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, methodology, and statistics.