Bare vs Bear
Published January 17, 2023. Updated January 17, 2023.
Bare and Bear look like twins where one just puts his pants on backwards. But aside from the fact that they sound the same and have the same four letters, they’re actually two completely different words that mean different things and have nothing to do with one another. The most common use of bare is as an adjective means without covering, or unadorned. It is also commonly used as a verb, which means to reveal. The most common use of bear is as a verb. (Well, yes, the noun form is also common: a massive, furry animal, like a grizzly bear, a black bear, or a polar bear. But never mind. No animals were harmed in the making of this guide.) The verb bear means to hold up, support, carry, or endure. Before this gets too confusing…
Here are some definitions and examples to help make the use of these words clearer.
Bare (adjective, verb)
(adj) Without covering, unadorned.
(v) To reveal
Examples:
(adj) It feels so good to run in the grass on your bare feet!
(v) The actor bared the secrets of his difficult childhood in his memoir.
In the first sentence, bare is used as an adjective describing feet without coverings, as in no shoes. In the second sentence, bare is used as a verb. It is the action of the sentence. The actor revealed his painful past in his memoir. The idea is that what is revealed is without covering and unadorned.
Bear (verb)
To hold up, support, carry, or endure.
Examples:
My sister peeked at the end of her book because she couldn’t bear the suspense!
The skinny legs of the table couldn’t bear your weight when you sat on top, so
they collapsed.
In these examples, bear is a verb; an action. In the first sentence, my sister looked at the ending in a book because she could not endure the suspense. She had to know how it ended! In the second example, the table had skinny legs that could not hold up or support the weight of a person, so the legs collapsed.
Main Points
- Bare can be an adjective that means without covering or unadorned.
- Bare can also be a verb which means to reveal. The idea is that what is revealed is uncovered and unadorned: the naked truth.
- Bear means to hold up, support, carry, or endure.
- Remember: there is a huge difference between bare feet (no shoes) and bear feet (the feet of a massive, furry animal).
- The expression is “Grin and bear it”, meaning smile and endure it; not “Grin and bare it”, which would mean smile and reveal something uncovered.