ESEN
Which one to use?Beginnerpronounnoun
OurvsHour
'Our' is the first-person plural possessive pronoun (belonging to us); 'hour' is the unit of time equal to 60 minutes.
Side-by-side comparison
Our
pronoun"Our" is the first person plural possessive pronoun: belonging to us. "Our house" = the house that belongs to us. "Our team" = the team we belong to. Pronounced as one syllable.
Our team achieved its best results in the company's history this quarter.
Please keep our meeting details confidential until the announcement is made.
Our approach to customer service sets us apart from the competition.
Hour
noun"Hour" is the unit of time equal to 60 minutes. "An hour later" = one hour after. The 'h' is silent, so it sounds exactly like "our".
The flight takes approximately four hours from London to New York.
She works an eight-hour day and takes a half-hour lunch break.
The report must be submitted within the hour or the deadline will be missed.
Common mistake
- •"Hour approach is different" when meaning belonging to us is wrong (correct: our).
- •"Hour" is the 60-minute time unit, with a silent H borrowed from French.
Trick to remember it
- •"Our" = O-U-R, like "your" and "their", the possessive family all end in R.
- •"Hour" starts with a silent H like "honor," "honest," "heir", words borrowed from French that kept the H in spelling but not in sound.
Quick rule
- •Is it the possessive meaning belonging to us? "Our".
- •Is it the 60-minute time unit? "Hour".
Did you know?
The silent H in HOUR came from Old French "hore/heure" (from Latin "hora"). When English borrowed the word, it kept the H in spelling but dropped it in pronunciation, just as happened with HONEST, HONOR, HEIR, and HERB (in American English). The concept of dividing the day into 24 hours was invented by Egyptians roughly 4,000 years ago, though their "hours" did not have a fixed length, they were seasonal hours that stretched or shrank with the time of year. Equal fixed-length hours only became standard with the arrival of mechanical clocks in the 14th century.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
We arrived at _____ destination after a long drive through the mountains.
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
The film lasted just over an _____ . It was quite short.
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
AcceptvsExcept
One means to receive or agree to something, the other means to exclude or not include.
AdvicevsAdvise
'Advice' is the guidance you receive (noun); 'advise' is the act of giving that guidance (verb).
AffectvsEffect
'Affect' is the verb meaning to influence something; 'effect' is the noun meaning result or consequence.
AislevsIsle
'Aisle' is the walkway between rows of seats or shelves; 'isle' is a small island.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy