Our

Our is the possessive determiner and possessive pronoun form of the first-person plural in English. It marks ownership by the speakers and at least one other person, and is commonly used before a noun to indicate what belongs to the group. For example, “our house” or “our team.”

Grammatically, our functions as a determiner when it precedes a noun (our friends), and as a pronoun in an independent position (the house is ours). Its reflexive form is ourselves, and its possessive pronoun form is ours. It does not stand alone as a subject pronoun; instead “we” is the subject in a sentence. The use of our can express inclusive or collective identity and can convey solidarity or shared ownership in discourse.

Etymology and related forms: Our descends from the Old English possessive form of “we,” and is related to other West Germanic languages such as German unser and Dutch ons. The development traces to Proto-Germanic and ultimately to the broader Proto-Indo-European roots for the first-person plural pronoun.

See also: pronoun, possessive determiner, ours, ourselves.