Ask WordMum: Born vs Borne
This month’s instalment of the Ask WordMum series looks at using born and borne correctly! Read on for some advice, tips, and tricks, with some examples so you can see it in action.
Our Question
How do I know when to use born or borne? What’s the difference?
Terrible Advice
The ‘e’ is entirely optional and you should only use it if you’re feeling a bit French.
What about Bourne? Congratulations, you’re a black ops agent.
WordMum Says
Let’s start from the beginning with these and go from there. Here are the two basic roots of these words:
Born (verb, adjective)
This is when someone or something gives birth, such as to a baby. This spelling is always used in the context of birth or of something coming into being, though it’s not only babies or live young that it is used with. For example, ideas can be born.
When trying to work out if you should use this spelling in a metaphor, ask yourself if the core idea you’re trying to convey comes back to something or someone being birthed. If that’s the case, there is always something giving birth and something that is being born.
Borne (verb, adjective)
This refers to something being carried. This might be a burden, a weight, or something more nebulous like happiness or pain. It links back to the verb to bear, which has the past tense of bore (borne is the past participle). Bore and borne both have the E on the end, if that helps you to remember! When you’re working out if this is the spelling you want, consider whether the meaning you’re trying to convey relates back to carrying something.
Those are the two key concepts that distinguish these words from each other. If you can identify which of those concepts makes sense in the context you’re using it in, that should help you to decide which spelling to use.
Example Time!
Here are some examples of these terms in action and what they mean:
The chick was born in his hand.
This means that the chick came into being in his hand, so it has hatched in the palm of someone’s hand. However, it doesn’t entirely make sense, because birds are hatched, not born; nothing gives birth to chicks. Female birds lay eggs, which is not the same thing. Live birth tends to be used for mammals and similar classes of creature.
The chick was borne in his hand.
This means he was carrying the chick in his hand. This one makes sense and is straightforward. Also very literal!
And that’s how the idea was born.
This indicates that you’ve just finished explaining how an idea was formed, how someone came up with it, or how it came into being.
And that’s how the idea was borne.
This indicates that you’ve just finished explaining how an idea was carried forward by someone or something. This covers someone enacting the idea, or at least conveying it to somewhere for some purpose. It generally doesn’t refer to how the idea came about in the first place.
This cannot be born!
Someone is having great trouble giving birth (and is probably in some medical trouble), or something cannot be brought into being. If the thing in question is a baby, you probably shouldn’t refer to it as merely ‘this’, it’s a little rude.
This cannot be borne!
Someone or something cannot carry the burden in question, whatever it is. It’s often used to mean the thing cannot be carried any longer, along the lines of ‘I can’t take it any more’ or (more usefully) ‘I can’t bear it’. If you can switch out the thing (‘this’ in the phrase above) with ‘this burden’, you’re referring back to the notion of carrying something, which means you want borne.
The wind-born sound of distant bells.
This is where the word we’re discussing is used as an adjective rather than a verb. To drill down into its meaning, this refers to a sound being born from the wind. This doesn’t entirely make sense, as the wind doesn’t typically cause or produce bell-like sounds. If the phrase referred to the sound of leaves rustling or pipes, that might work, though it may sound odd as it’s stretching the birth metaphor.
The wind-borne sound of distant bells.
This is a more typical phrase, as it refers to a sound being carried on the wind. This is something sound does naturally (wind can transmit sound over long distances), so it makes logical and meaningful sense.
In many of these contexts, borne is correct but can sound archaic or stiff. This may suit the voice of the piece you’re working on or the character you’re writing, or you may wish to reword it to use a more modern or contemporary phrasing.
Does that help you understand which word to use in a given context? Are there any other situations in which these words might come up that it would be helpful to clarify? Let us know and we’ll try to tackle those, too!
I’d also love to know if you have any other strategies that help you remember which spelling to use. What helps you make sure you have the right word with the right meaning?
Do you have something you want to have clarified? Then ask WordMum by commenting or contacting her on the Discord server.
Watch this space for more advice in this series!