# ours

Pronunciation: US say "OW-erz" /ˈaʊəɹz/; UK say "OW-uhz" /ˈaʊəz/

## Pronoun

1. Used in place of a noun to refer to the thing or things that belong to us.
   - Simple: Used to talk about a thing or things that belong to us.
   - _The final decision is ours, not the landlord's._
   - _A neighbor of ours found the dog wandering down the street._
2. Belonging to the speaker's group but not to the person or people being addressed.
   - Simple: Belonging to my group but not to you, the person I am talking to.
   - _The committee reminded the guests that the final vote was ours alone._
   - _That stretch of farmland has been ours for generations, never theirs._
3. Belonging to the speaker's group, with the person or people being addressed included.
   - Simple: Belonging to my group and to you too, the person I am talking to.
   - _Standing before the crowd, she declared that the achievement was ours, hers and theirs alike._
   - _The garden is ours now, planted by you and me side by side._
4. Belonging to any group the speaker belongs to or identifies with, such as a nation, region, employer, school, or language.
   - Simple: Belonging to a group, place, or team that I feel part of, like my country or school.
   - _Visitors praise the coastline, but to everyone raised here, that shore is ours._
   - _Other firms may be bigger, but the patent is ours, filed by our own engineers._
5. Belonging to people in general, as a shared human possession.
   - Simple: Belonging to all people, as something everyone shares.
   - _The responsibility to protect the planet is ours, shared by all of humankind._
   - _Curiosity is ours from birth; every child is born wanting to understand the world._
6. Used of the speaker's own experiences or activities in a way that implies a group of listeners shares a connection with them. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Used by a speaker about their own activities or experiences, to make a group of listeners feel part of them.
   - _Okay, everyone, most sourdough loaves come out flat on the first try, but ours is rising beautifully this week._
   - _Lots of runs end right at this boss, chat, but ours is going pretty well so far._
7. Belonging to all of the people being addressed, framed as something the speaker shares too. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Belonging to all of you that I am talking to, said as if I share it too.
   - _Gathering the volunteers, the organizer announced that the award was ours to celebrate._
   - _Welcome aboard, passengers. For the next week, this ship is ours._
8. Belonging to the single person being addressed, used especially by someone caring for them or giving them advice, and which can sound patronizing. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: Belonging to the one person I am talking to, said by someone caring for them, and it can sound like talking down.
   - _The aide pointed to the slippers by the bed and asked the patient whether they were ours._
   - _Settling the new resident in, the nurse asked sweetly if the photographs on the shelf were ours._
9. The speaker's house or home. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: My family's house or home.
   - _We're hosting the holidays at ours again this year._
   - _After the wedding, a few friends stopped by ours for one last drink._

## Origin

From Middle English oures, attested since the 1300s, equivalent to "our" plus the "-s" ending (compare the possessive "-'s"), formed by analogy to "his." It displaced the earlier "ourn" (from Middle English ouren) in standard speech.

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