bearingvsbringWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“bearing” and “bring” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,918
“bearing” frequency rank
#537
“bring” frequency rank
5455
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bearing bring
Definition present participle and gerund of bear To transport toward somebody/somewhere.

Where the eye mixes bearing and bring

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
bearing
5 ch
bring

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. bearing (/ˈbɛə̯ɹɪŋ/) and bring (/ˈbɹɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bearing is recorded at frequency rank #4,918, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈbɛə̯ɹɪŋ/. bring is at rank #537, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈbɹɪŋ/.

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 5455, this pair ranks #515,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of bearing vs bring

Shared letters: bginr. Private to "bearing": ae. Private to "bring": -.

"bearing" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "bring" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bearingbaering · bbearing · beairng · bearign · bearingg · bearinng · bearnig · bearring
  • bringbbring · birng · brign · bringg · brinng · brnig · brring · rbing

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bearing" and "bring" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈbɛə̯ɹɪŋ/ versus /ˈbɹɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bearing" or "bring"?
"bring" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #537 in our English list, against #4,918 for "bearing". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list