ours

Our family dog is ours.

Definition

1. Possessive Pronoun:
   • Belonging to or associated with the speaker and one or more others: "ours" is used to refer to something that belongs to "us" (the speaker and at least one other person). It replaces a noun phrase like "our + noun" to avoid repetition.
   • Formal or collective possession: It can also indicate ownership or association with a group, such as a family, team, or organization.

Usage Examples

• (The house belongs to my family or group.)
• (Our family is large; "ours" stands for "our family.")
• (The victory belonged to our team or group.)
• (This one belongs to us, not to you.)

Advanced Usage

• "of ours": A common construction to emphasize possession, often used with a noun.

  • A friend of ours came to visit. (One of our friends came to visit.)
  • That dog of ours is very playful. (Our dog is very playful.)

• "ours to claim": Used to indicate something that is rightfully or deservedly belonging to the speaker's group.

  • The championship is ours to claim. (The championship is ours to win or possess.)

Variants and Related Words

• Our (possessive determiner): used before a noun to indicate possession by "us."
  • Our car is blue. (The car belonging to us is blue.)
• Ourselves (reflexive pronoun): used to refer to the speaker and others as the object of an action.
  • We hurt ourselves during the game. (We caused injury to our own bodies.)

Synonyms

• Our own: emphasizes personal or exclusive possession.
  • This is our own house. (This house belongs specifically to us.)
• Belonging to us: a descriptive phrase.
  • The land belonging to us is fertile. (The land that we own is fertile.)

Related Idioms

• Ours is not to reason why: A phrase from Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade," meaning it is not our duty to question orders.
  • The soldiers followed orders, for theirs is not to reason why. (They did not question their commands.)
• Yours, mine, and ours: A phrase used to describe shared or collective ownership.
  • We combined our savings — yours, mine, and ours — to buy the house. (We pooled everyone's money together.)