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Mixed up English
What’s the difference between ours and our’s?
Ours
Ours is the first person plural possessive pronoun – it replaces the possessive adjective "our" + a noun.
He found a book – is it ours?
Is this yours or ours?
He can’t find his keys, but ours are on the table.
Ours is a better idea.
The pleasure is ours.
Our’s
Though you may see our’s written even by native speakers, it is incorrect. Ours should never have an apostrophe.
The Bottom Line
The idea that ours needs an apostrophe comes out of the fact that on virtually every other word, ‘s indicates possession, so English speakers sometimes think ours should be spelled our’s. However, this is always incorrect – ours is the only correct spelling.
Related difficulties
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