Home » Miscellaneous, Ramblings

Stupid Question #1: Is it BARE in mind, or BEAR in mind?

8 June 2008 5,197 views 14 Comments

A question that has always haunted me, ever since founding my first blog, or even written my first article, has been a simple grammatical error seen all over the internet.

Is it bare in mind, or bear in mind?

The answer, before I hold it back any longer, is "bear in mind." The reason behind this is bear, in the sense of holding, rather than the sense of grizzly bear. A common misconception is that bare means to hold, as well as the correct meaning, nude.

Well that’s my nugget of wisdom for today. Have fun.

1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (5 votes, average: 4.4 out of 5)
Loading ... Loading ...

14 Comments »

  • Ahad Bokhari said:

    Thanks Lawrence i have been using bare everytime and just today i misused it again!! Glad you cleared it up!!

    # 10 June 2008 at 11:51 am
  • Lawrence (author) said:

    Glad you find it useful… it’s one of those things for me that I need to post just to make sure I don’t do it again..

    # 12 June 2008 at 4:17 pm
  • What’s actually happening with the iPhone in the UK? at That’s an idea! said:

    [...] clear that O2’s standard Pay & Go charges can be used with the iPhone. It is also worth bearing in mind that the more you top-up, the cheaper it becomes, as 25p/minute to non-O2 phones isn’t a [...]

    # 30 June 2008 at 8:26 pm
  • Alan said:

    Good question - I have an English degree and more years of experience than I care (cear) to mention, but as I wrote it just now I was beset with doubt! Who the hell looks these things up on Google - well, people like me I guess!

    # 2 July 2008 at 12:38 pm
  • Alon said:

    Thanks! I just had the same dilemma. thank god for google..

    # 16 August 2008 at 2:14 pm
  • Emily said:

    I have been using bare for years… Ops.

    # 1 September 2008 at 2:18 pm
  • Doug Selby said:

    Cheers Lawrence! I googled this in a moment of doubt, and am reassured by your authoritative tone. Also, I googled loadbearing, just to check. :~)

    # 4 September 2008 at 3:15 pm
  • allover said:

    Cheers, yes google good, unless this is all a big joke and everyone is going to laugh at me when i write bear now!
    Don’t drink the kool aid!

    # 5 September 2008 at 12:04 am
  • Lawrence (author) said:

    Haha! No, not a joke… I always used to have trouble with that one, so I figured I’d share it when I found out.

    # 5 September 2008 at 6:16 am
  • rrpostal said:

    Another English BS here who always has trouble with that one! Usually I can reason these things out, but this one has stuck in my craw (now I’m doubting myself on that one too).

    Thanks for the help.

    # 25 September 2008 at 2:14 am
  • Tammy said:

    Thanks alot Lawrence, I just had the need for the clarification and you blog helped a whole lot. All the best

    # 2 October 2008 at 3:29 pm
  • caroline said:

    I almost submitted a paper to my boss with the incorrect ‘bare’/….thanks!!

    # 7 October 2008 at 1:34 pm
  • Matthew said:

    Unless you are nudists, you were likely to be asking them to *bear* with you. One of the many meanings of the verb “to bear” is to “To press, force one’s way against resistance; to move with effort, with persistence, or with a distinct bias in some direction”. So “bear with me” means persist in me in something, a line of reasoning, perhaps. It’s also to “bear in mind” as in to bear or carry some though in mind.

    # 31 October 2008 at 12:44 am
  • JamesZilla said:

    Clearly you’ve been thinking about Bears. So it’s definately Bear in mind, yuk yuk.

    # 3 November 2008 at 1:21 pm

Leave your response!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.

Related Posts from the Past: