# our

Pronunciation: US say "OW-ur" /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/; UK say "OW-uh" /ˈaʊə(ɹ)/

## Determiner

1. Belonging to or associated with the speaker and one or more other people, or a group the speaker belongs to, with or without the person addressed.
   - Simple: Belonging to me and other people, or to a group I am part of.
   - _We will send you our address._
   - _Our school is bigger than your school._
2. Belonging to human beings as a whole.
   - Simple: Belonging to people in general, including everyone.
   - _Our need for water is greater than our need for food._
   - _Most of our cells are replaced over time._
3. Used to present the speaker's own activity as shared with the audience. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Used by a speaker to include listeners in what they are doing.
   - _"On today's show, we're planting our tomatoes," the TV gardener said._
   - _"Now we gently fold in our egg whites and slide the pan into the oven," the TV chef said, smiling at the camera._
4. Used informally instead of your, his or her, especially by a carer, nurse or teacher speaking to or about someone in their charge; it can sound patronizing. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Used by nurses, carers or teachers to mean your, his or her, which can sound like talking down.
   - _How is our knee feeling this morning?_
   - _Have we taken our pills this morning, Mr. Garcia?_
5. Used before a first name to mark a member of one's family or a very close friend. *(dialectal, Northern England, Scotland)*
   - Simple: Used before a name in northern Britain to show the person is family or a very close friend.
   - _Have you heard from our Michael lately?_
   - _That's our Lisa's car outside._
6. In a monarch's official speech or writing, the possessive that goes with the royal we, standing for my.
   - Simple: Used by a king or queen instead of my when speaking or writing in an official way.
   - _The proclamation closed with the words "Given at our court, under our hand and seal, this tenth day of June."_
   - _"It is our pleasure that the prisoner be released," the empress declared from the throne._

## Origin

From Middle English oure, from Old English ūre (ūser), from Proto-Germanic *unseraz ("of us, our") and ultimately Proto-Indo-European *n̥-s-ero-. It is related to Dutch onze, German unser, Norwegian vår, and more distantly to Latin noster.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/our (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).