Why English is Weird: Many Meanings of “BEAR” & “BARE”

This is ridiculous, oh yes it is.

I have a poem for you.

It's one that I learned as a child.

I'm a bear, by the way, and let me share this poem with you.

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.

Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.

Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy.

Wuzzy.

Okay, so let's get back to the basics here.

I'm here to teach you about the word "bear",

so that's why I'm dressed up like a bear.

Everyone knows, well, some people know that a bear is an animal, right?

Like "rawr, I'm going to eat you", or some people eat bears, let's not go there.

So, we know bear is a noun, it's an animal, "rawr, look at me".

But the funny thing is, too, that "bear" is also a verb.

What?

And an adjective.

But the verb part is, you know, where things

get funny, and how we have a sense of humour.

Do you know what one of those are?

A sense of humour?

Do you know what one of those "are" is?

Is "are", "are"?

To have a sense of humour?

Well, let me walk you through it, right?

It's playing with words so that the meanings become different.

First example.

So, "bear" as one verb means to carry, so I'm going to carry something, or we can say

- oh man, this is very, I think, our friends south of the border, American.

You have the right to bear arms.

So, in my brain, I think it's an arm, I think

it's a person with bear arms, "rawr", but

actually no, it doesn't mean that in this sentence.

You have the right to carry arms, and again, arms, but arms are these things.

Guess what?

"Arms" in this sentence means things like firearms, like guns, or ammunition, all the

bad things in the world.

Guns are bad.

Don't let anyone tell you differently.

So, you have the right to bear arms.

You have the right to carry weapons.

Canada, we can't do this.

Yes.

You can still have arms of a bear if you wanted

to, you could paint them up and, you know,

it's almost Halloween where I am.

So, "bear" means carry.

Another example.

"I had to bear my backpack."

I have to carry my backpack.

This doesn't sound as cool, does it?

Next one, very common phrase is "support", I don't know, engineering things.

"The bridge", you know what a bridge is?

Okay.

"The bridge can't bear the weight of cars."

Okay, but not the animal, right?

It means support.

So, I could say, "The bear can't support the

weight of cars", or "The bridge can't bear

the weight of cars".

Fun.

See?

Why is it a bear?

Why can't it be, like, a giraffe?

That'd be more fun.

"The bridge can't giraffe", now it just doesn't

sound as good anymore, okay, "endure", oh,

this one's great.

"I can't bear the pain", so dramatic.

Isn't as effective as "I can't giraffe the pain", so, "I can't bear the pain" means I

can't endure the pain, right?

"I had to bear seven minutes of talking to someone", oh my god.

So, "endure" means to have to do something that you don't like, like studying.

Oh man, now I had to endure English class.

No, don't even think that.

Change direction.

So, do you have a car or not, or whatever?

And sometimes in the voice that speaks to me

in my car, also known as my phone, I didn't

know it had this option that it talked.

It's crazy.

Anyways, sometimes on, like, whatever map thing you're using, it'll say "bear left",

and you're like, "There's a bear on the left, what's going on?"

There's no bear, because you're driving on the highway, and it basically means change

direction or just go, go left.

But just to make things complicated and make

accidents, they're going to say "bear", "bear

left", "bear left", "bear right", "bear", no bear, just change direction and go.

Okay.

Yeah, this is just weird, isn't it?

But again, better than giraffe.

Next up, "naked", "nude", "without clothes or", in Fuzzy Wuzzy's case, "without fur".

Okay?

So, if you're nude or naked, it means you're not wearing any clothes.

And "fur" is for animals.

Animals have fur, humans have hair.

I have hair, okay?

If you're human and you don't have hair, it's

called "bald", but for an animal without fur,

we call it "bear".

So, example, "Her arms were bare", not the animal, so she got a sunburn.

This happens to me if I don't cover my arms

when I go out into the sun, I get a sunburn.

Notice, though...

What's happened here?

The spelling has changed.

This is what we call, you got it, a homophone.

So, this word "bear" and this word "bear" have the exact same pronunciation, which is

confusing in English because this looks like

"beer", but it's not, and this is "bear",

so "bear".

No, don't even do that.

"Bear", "bear".

Believe me, just believe me, it's the same.

So, "bear" can be a noun, "bear" can be a verb

having four different meanings, and "bear"

can be an adjective.

So, me, I'm off to find Fuzzy Wuzzy and have a beer with Fuzzy Wuzzy.

Till next time.

Toodles.