Are or Our?

The Quick Answer

What is the difference between are and our?

Are is like am and is. (They are all forms of the verb to be in the present tense.) For example:

We are currently driving to London.

Our means belonging to us. (It is a possessive pronoun.) For example:

Our house is full of construction workers.

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Are or Our?

The words are and our are both extremely common in English, and they sound similar. However, their meanings are very different.

Are

Are is to is as were is to was. In other words, are is from the verb to be.

Look at this table:

Pronoun	Person	Verb To Be in Simple Present
I	First person singular	am
You	Second person singular	are
He/She/It	Third person singular	is
We	First person plural	are
You	Second person plural	are
They	Third person plural	are

Examples:

They are looking forward to Christmas.
When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour. That's relativity. (Albert Einstein)
Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese. (Luis Bunuel)

Our

Our means belonging to us. Our is a possessive adjective.

Examples:

This is our dog.
We love even when our love is not requited. (Mortimer Adler)
All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. (Walt Disney)

The other possessive adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, their, and whose.

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