beanvsbearsTell them apart

Which to use

“bean” and “bears” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,940
“bean” frequency rank
#44,472
“bears” frequency rank
77412
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bean bears
Definition die Bohne Plural des Substantivs bear

Letter map: bean vs bears

Shared letters muted; letters that set bean and bears apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. bean runs 4 letters (CVVC) against bears's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
bean
5 ch
bears

Spelling & dictionary notes on bean vs bears

bean and bears are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77412, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bean is recorded at frequency rank #32,940, classified as anoun, pronounced [biːn]. 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 77412, this pair ranks #261,269 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bean vs bears

Shared letters: abe. Private to "bean": n. Private to "bears": rs.

"bean" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "bears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bean ← baen · bbean · beann · bena · eban
  • bears ← bbears · bearrs · bearss · beasr · beras · ebars

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bean" and "bears" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary German text, does "bean" or "bears" show up more?
"bean" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,940 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.

What to do next

You've compared "bean" and "bears". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bean" 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 #261,269 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bean" 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 #261,269 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