Hour is a unit of time, sixty minutes: "The flight takes three hours." Our is the possessive form of we, meaning belonging to us: "That's our car in the drive." They sound the same because the h in hour is silent.
A noun and a possessive
Hour names a thing. You can count hours, put an or the in front of one, and make it plural.
- I'll be back in an hour.
- She works long hours.
- The library opening hours have changed.
Our never stands alone — it always leans on a noun that follows it.
- Our train leaves at nine.
- We've made our decision.
The test
Try swapping in my. If the sentence still works, you want our: "our team" → "my team". If instead you could swap in a minute or a day, you want hour: "in an hour" → "in a minute".
A second check: our belongs to the family we, us, ours, ourselves — all with no h. If the sentence is about a group you're part of, drop the h.
Why "an hour" and not "a hour"
The h in hour is silent, so the word begins with a vowel sound. That is what decides the article, not the letter on the page — hence an hour, an honest answer, an heir, but a house, a hotel. Writing "a hour" is a common slip and always wrong in standard English.
Possessive hours
Hour takes an apostrophe when it modifies a noun, which surprises people: an hour's drive, three hours' work, two hours' delay. Add a and the hyphenated adjective takes over instead: a two-hour delay, never "a two hours' delay". Our never takes an apostrophe in any form — and neither does ours. "Our's" is not a word.
Phrases to keep straight
- rush hour, happy hour, the eleventh hour, on the hour, working hours — time.
- our own, in our view, on our behalf, ours truly — possession.
- Our hour is up. — both, and perfectly correct.
An accent note
In most accents the two are identical in sound. In some, our is pronounced with two syllables, closer to "ow-er", while hour keeps one — but this varies enough that you can't rely on it. As with every homophone pair, the spellchecker won't help you: both words are real, so "in a our" and "our house is an ours away" pass silently. The my test is the reliable one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it "a hour" or "an hour"?
An hour. The h is silent, so the word starts with a vowel sound and takes "an" — the same reason we say "an honour" and "an heir".
Should I write "an hour's drive" or "an hours drive"?
An hour's drive, with the apostrophe. The drive belongs to the hour, so it takes the possessive form — likewise "two hours' work".
Is "our's" ever correct?
No. The possessive pronoun is "ours", never with an apostrophe: "That table is ours." The same goes for yours, hers and theirs.