we'revswearsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: we're is a contraction, wears is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“we're” is a contraction and “wears” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#394
“we're” frequency rank
#6,316
“wears” frequency rank
6710
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature we're wears
Definition Contraction of we + are. plural of wear

Where the eye mixes we're and wears

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
we're
5 ch
wears

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: we're is /wɪə/ while wears is /wɛəz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (contraction vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6710, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

we're is recorded at frequency rank #394, classified as acontraction, pronounced /wɪə/. wears is at rank #6,316, tagged as anoun, pronounced /wɛəz/.

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 6710, this pair ranks #510,296 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of we're vs wears

Shared letters: erw. Private to "we're": -. Private to "wears": as.

"we're" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "wears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • wearsewars · waers · wearrs · wearss · weasr · weras · wwears

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "we're" and "wears" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "we're" is a contraction and "wears" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "we're" or "wears"?
"we're" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #394 in our English list, against #6,316 for "wears". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list