baresvsbearsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: bares is a adjective, bears is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“bares” is an adjective and “bears” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,894
“bares” frequency rank
#44,472
“bears” frequency rank
66366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bares bears
Definition Nominativ Singular Neutrum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs bar Plural des Substantivs bear

Letter map: bares vs bears

Shared letters muted; letters that set bares and bears apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. bares (CVCVC) and bears (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
bares
5 ch
bears

Grammar separator: bares vs bears

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: bares is anadjective and bearsanoun. On the page they are an anagram pair: the same letters reordered. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bares is recorded at frequency rank #21,894, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈbaːʁəs]. bears is at rank #44,472, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 66366, this pair ranks #575,803 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bares vs bears

Shared letters: abers. Private to "bares": -. Private to "bears": -.

"bares" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "bears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bares ← abres · baers · baress · barres · barse · bbares · braes
  • bears ← bbears · bearrs · bearss · beasr · beras · ebars

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bares" and "bears" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "bares" is an adjective and "bears" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "bares" vs "bears" - which ranks higher?
"bares" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,894 in our German list, against #44,472 for "bears". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "bares" and "bears".

  • Full dictionary entry for "bares" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bears" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #575,803 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bares" and "bears" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bears vs puzzles". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #575,803 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list