Which to use
“bear” and “bears” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,180
- “bear” frequency rank
- #44,472
- “bears” frequency rank
- 65652
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bear | bears |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bär (Tierart) | Plural des Substantivs bear |
Letter map: bear vs bears
Shared letters muted; letters that set bear and bears apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. bear 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.
Spelling & dictionary notes on bear vs bears
bear 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 extra letter(s) - “bear” sits inside “bears”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bear is recorded at frequency rank #21,180, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbɛə(ɹ)]. 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 65652, this pair ranks #599,532 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bear vs bears
Shared letters: aber. Private to "bear": -. Private to "bears": s.
"bear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "bears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bear" and "bears" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "bear" vs "bears" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "bear" vs "bears" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "bear" 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 #599,532 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bear" 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 #599,532 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.