(STRAND OF) HAIR
(1本の)髪の毛

HOME>Word Master®>(STRAND OF) HAIR | (1本の)髪の毛

For Life
2002.11.01

Welcome to another Friday! And Fridays ARE always welcome, aren't they? As this is the last day of our series on hair, it's time that we focus on the finer points of the word hair itself.

Explanation

  • A single hair is called a strand of hair. We can also call a single strand "a hair". When used in this way, the word hair is countable. For example, we can say "several strands of hair" or "several hairs".

    When we talk about all the hair on our head, or about any MASS of hair, rather than individual strands, we use the word hair in its uncountable form (no "-s").
  • 髪の毛1本のことを a strand of hair または、単に a hair と言います。a hair と言う場合は、hair は数えられる名詞として扱われます。例えば、「数本の髪の毛」は、several strands of hairまたは several hairs と言うことができます。

    頭髪全体のことや、本数を問わずに髪の毛と言う場合は、hair は数えられない名詞( -s をつけない)として扱わます。

examples

  1. I found a long strand of blonde hair on my husband's suit jacket ... and it wasn't mine!
  2. Waiter, there's a hair in my soup!
  3. The shiny, jet-black hair of many Japanese women can be extremely beautiful.

That's enough splitting of hairs for one day, don't you think? Have a terrific weekend!