Ask WordMum: Bear vs Bare
Welcome to the first post in our Ask WordMum series! Here, we’ll be going through some advice, tips, and tricks, with some examples so you can see it in action.
Our Question
How do I know whether to use bare or bear in a sentence?
Terrible Things
To bare arms and to bear arms both involve showing your guns!
Do you arrest the bear Roo or the bare Roo? (Answer: neither, the Roo must roam free)
WordMum Says
Bear and bare sound similar but they have quite different meanings and uses. As with some other word pairs like this, I find it’s useful to identify a core meaning or concept for each that I can link other uses back to, to help me remember which word I should be using. So let’s break it down.
Bare = naked (adjective, verb).
This is a good place to start. A naked body or thing is uncovered, has no clothing or layers on it, is unadorned, and is exposed. Keep this in mind! Picture whichever body you like.
Connected words: baring (verb), bared (verb)
Bear = to carry something (usually a burden) (verb), or the big, furry animal (noun).
(There are other uses of the word, usually euphemisms or colloquialisms, but I assume you don’t need help figuring out when or where to use those.)
The confusion typically happens when trying to use the former meaning (a verb relating to carrying something), so we’ll focus on that here.
Both of the common meanings of bear link back to a core idea of strength: something big, strong, or requiring strength to deal with. Keep this in mind! Picture any kind of bear you like.
Connected words: bearing (noun, verb), unbearable (adjective), bore (past tense)
When I’m trying to work out which one of these words to us, I ask myself whether the subject requires strength to handle or if someone is getting naked.
Your answer might be ‘both!’, but the word can only specify one of these options, so which is most appropriate? Am I talking about something that is uncovered, exposed, being carried, or requires strength to handle? This helps me track it back to the base word I’m looking for.
Example Time!
Here are some common uses of these words and how we use these two bases to figure out which one it actually is.
He bared his teeth.
This means the person or animal is pulling his lips back from his teeth and uncovering them, so bare is the way to go here. If you bear your teeth, that simply means you have some and are carrying them (hopefully not in your hand). In the same tense, it would be ‘he bore his teeth’ – there is no such word as beared – and that just sounds wrong.
She was bearing the satchel easily.
This refers to carrying, usually involving some kind of burden or weight. In this case, lean on the fact that to carry something requires strength, which leads us back to the bear. To bare the satchel would mean to reveal it.
They bore down on their opponent.
This one also implies strength is being applied, so we look to the bear for how to spell it. This phrasing can also mean movement, such as closing a gap in a chase, and in that case I would look to the idea of pressure being applied, which is the implication of using a phrase like ‘bearing down’. Pressure is a similar concept to weight or something that requires strength to handle, and even if it’s emotional or mental strength we’re talking about, that brings us back to bear.
She had an uncommon bearing.
In this context, someone’s ‘bearing’ refers specifically to how they carry themselves (including things like posture, carriage, and gait). Linking it back to how they carry themself gives us the burden / bear meaning. An uncommon baring would be an unusual way of undressing, and quite a different description of what’s happening.
The light was unbearable.
This means the light was too much, usually too bright. A person would flinch away from light like this and cover their eyes. In this case, I would refer this back to the fact that the light is too strong or too much to handle, so we get back to bear. Also, unbareable isn’t a word.
The bare truth.
This means the naked truth, unadorned and exposed. Relating it to nakedness leads us back to the bare word we want to use here. The bear truth would be facts about bears.
That’s what we have for you today! Did that help? Do you have a different way of knowing which of these words to use? Got an example where you’re not sure how to work out which word to use? Tell us!
Got something you want to have clarified? Then go ask WordMum!