Which to use
“bear” and “bed” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,057
- “bear” frequency rank
- #26,977
- “bed” frequency rank
- 47034
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bear | bed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Homme poilu et barbu, généralement enveloppé ou gros. | Lit. |
Where the eye mixes bear and bed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: bear vs bed
A purely visual mix-up. bear (\bɛʁ\) and bed (\ˈbed\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bear is recorded at frequency rank #20,057, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛʁ\. bed is at rank #26,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈbed\.
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 47034, this pair ranks #190,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bear vs bed
Shared letters: be. Private to "bear": ar. Private to "bed": d.
"bear" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "bed" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bear ← bbear · bearr · bera · ebar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bear" for "bed" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "bear" or "bed" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "bear" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #190,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bear" and "bed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bed vs bold". 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 #190,164 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.