Naming parts of the human body

IP: 212.122.214.* 01.12.08, 11:33
Could you answer the following questions, please?

1) When I show my hair to students, what should I say: "It's hair" or "It's the hair" ?

2) When I show somebody's hair on a picture, what should I say? The same as in the first case?

3) When I show some particular hair of somebody on a picture, which I mentioned earlier, for example; then what should I say? "It's the hair of [somebody's name here]" ?
(I don't mean here only several hairs but whole hair on the head)

4) Could the title of the post be named:
"Naming parts of human body" (without an article)
or
"Naming parts of a human body"?

I would be grateful for your answer.
    • Gość: Quark Re: Naming parts of the human body IP: 212.122.214.* 01.12.08, 12:54
      1) I forgot to add that I first ask "What's this?" and then what should be my
      answer or a student answer: "It's the hair" or "It's hair"?

      BTW. I should have written "in a picture".
      • jonathan.oakley Re: Naming parts of the human body 01.12.08, 15:58
        you can say (if the person is female) 'it's her hair' or just 'it's
        hair.' :-)
    • jonathan.oakley Re: Naming parts of the human body 01.12.08, 15:57
      Hi!
      1: In this context, you can the possessive adjective 'my' and
      say: 'This is my hair.'
      2: It depends on who the hair belongs to. If it's a girl(for
      example) you could say: 'Look at her hair.'
      3: If you know the person you could say, 'Look at (for eg) Susan's
      hair.'
      4: You can say, 'Naming the parts of the human body.':-)
      • Gość: Quark Re: Naming parts of the human body IP: 212.122.214.* 01.12.08, 17:26
        Thank you.
        1) So if I didn't want to use any personal pronoun I can say only "It's hair"
        but not "It's the hair": am I right? Is it because 'hair' the uncountable noun?
        I read that we use "the" if we want to substitute a personal pronoun so I'm
        still not sure if I should say "It's the hair" or "It's hair" in the situation I
        mentioned in the first point.
        Regards
        • jonathan.oakley Re: Naming parts of the human body 01.12.08, 19:21
          Yes, you can say "its hair": some examples: you might be hoovering
          the carpet and say "Oh look, there's hair on the carpet." Or someone
          might say: "What's that on the floor." With the reply, 'It's
          hair.' :-)
          • Gość: Quark Re: Naming parts of the human body IP: 212.122.214.* 01.12.08, 23:04
            Just to make sure - so, in my particular example, when I show my hair to
            students or somebody's hair in a picture and I ask "What is this?", the answer
            should be "It's hair", and not "It's the hair". Is that right?


            My concern is caused by the fact that we say, for example "It's the back"
            (because we have only one back), and "It's a finger" (because we have more than
            one finger), so the expression "It's hair" is different - it doesn't have any
            article, because it is uncountable, but on the other hand, we have only one
            hair. Moreover, I read that "the" can substitute a personal pronoun in a
            sentence. Though, if I want to say "This is my hair", according to that rule I
            should say "It's the hair", or maybe this rule doesn't apply here, I don't know.
            But still, we have only one hair on our heads so why shouldn't I say, in the
            particular situation I mentioned in the beginning, "It's the hair", the same as
            "It's the back", for example?

            Summing up:
            "It's THE back" - because we have only one
            "It's A finger" - because we have more than one

            and

            "It's hair" - because it is uncountable
            or
            "It's the hair" - because we have only one OR (I don't know if the following
            rule applies here) because "the" replaces a personal pronoun.

            What about my example I mentioned in the beginning then?

            Regards
            • jonathan.oakley Re: Naming parts of the human body 01.12.08, 23:56
              Thanks for your question and its fine to clarify.

              I have already covered in a previous question-and in detail-the use
              of definate and indefinate articles...so you may want to search the
              forum archives.

              One thing you should note is that English is very irregular. This
              means that most rules are flexible. Your word 'hair' is a good
              example. Some nouns can be classed as uncountable (hair) and behave
              as one. But if you use the word "a" they can change into a countable
              noun: example: there's a hair on my pillow.' To clarify your point:

              You can say "It's hair."
              • Gość: Quark Re: Naming parts of the human body IP: 212.122.214.* 03.12.08, 22:43
                Aha, so I will assume I MUST say "It's hair" to be grammatically correct. Thank you.
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