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Bear or Bare?
By Jack Ashby, on 18 June 2013
Whilst working on some new displays recently I stuck up a sign saying “Please bear with us whilst we develop new displays”. Some people thought this was a deliberate clever pun as the display included some bears and they believed the correct spelling to be “bare”. It seems that this is a common problem as the question “Bear or Bare” gets over 75 million results on Google. This may help you remember when to use “bear” and when to use “bare”.
1) If you are talking about the large mammal, say “bear”.
2) The adjective meaning naked is “bare”.
3) The verb meaning to carry or hold is “bear”. For example:
Bear in Mind
That’s a bear’s brain, by the way. And the skeleton’s a bear too
Bearing gifts
Grin and Bear It
Bear Fruit
Bear Up
Bring to Bear
Bear a Resemblance
Bearer of Bad News
I Can’t Bear Bears
Bear the Cold
Bear South
Do Not Feed the Bears
Right to Bear Arms
On that last one, by the way, I recommend this Family Guy clip, which also involves some bear arms.
In conclusion – bears are a lot more useful than being naked.
Jack Ashby is the Manager of the Grant Museum of Zoology
8 Responses to “Bear or Bare?”
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Daniel Morse wrote on 18 June 2013:
And although you can’t bear bears Jack it’s lucky that bears can bear bears else we’d be bare of bears.
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Bear With Me (in this Bare/Bear Discussion) | Writing • Editing • Solutions wrote on 21 June 2013:
[…] came across this cute explanation by Jack Ashby of when to use “bear” vs. “bare” and thought I’d share. […]
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The best natural history specimen in the world (did not get thrown on a fire) | UCL UCL Museums & Collections Blog wrote on 19 September 2013:
[…] of an overgrown pigeon. But a) wouldn’t it be bad if I weren’t a museum nerd and b) bear with […]
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The best natural history specimen in the world (did not get thrown on a fire) | NatSCA wrote on 19 September 2013:
[…] of an overgrown pigeon. But a) wouldn’t it be bad if I weren’t a museum nerd and b) bear with […]
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Specimen of the Week: Week 111 | UCL UCL Museums & Collections Blog wrote on 25 November 2013:
[…] The sloth bear (not bare) has long, shaggy black fur with an attractive ‘U’ or ‘Y’ shape of pale fur neatly placed […]
Love it. I have to stop and think about which spelling it is these days. Have the graphics in my head now. Thanks.