Which to use
“bears” and “ber” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,298
- “bears” frequency rank
- #48,940
- “ber” frequency rank
- 81238
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bears | ber |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de bear. | Appareil de charpente et de cordage, placé sous un grand bâtiment, pour le supporter pendant la construction ou la réparation, et qui glisse sur la cale lorsqu’on lance ce bâtiment à l’eau. |
Same sound, different letters: bears vs ber
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - bears and ber
This is the hard kind. bears and ber are pronounced identically (\bɛʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bears is recorded at frequency rank #32,298, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɛʁ\. ber is at rank #48,940, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɛʁ\.
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 81238, this pair ranks #19,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bears vs ber
Shared letters: ber. Private to "bears": as. Private to "ber": -.
"bears" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "ber" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- bears ← baers · bbears · bearrs · bearss · beasr · beras · ebars
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bears" for "ber" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bears" or "ber"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "bears" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ber" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bears" and "ber" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ber vs bury". 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 #19,184 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.