Hair (A hair of cat is on the Tom's jacket)

[Tung Quoc]

Dear teacher,

Please tell me the meaning of “hair” and “a hair” in:

1. The cat has nice hair.
2. A hair of cat is on the Tom's jacket.

Thanks
Quoc

[Alan]

Hi Quoc,

You tell me what you think.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Are you a Persuader?

[Tung Quoc]

Dear teacher,

I think:

1. The cat has nice hair.

hair = fur

2. A hair of cat is on the Tom's jacket.

a hair = a threat

Is it right?

Quoc

[Yankee]

Hi Quoc

Please check your dictionary for the word "threat".

"A (cat) hair" would not be a "thread". A hair would be one single strand of hair.

You should refer to a cat's coat as fur when it is still attached to the cat. If you want to talk about the fur that the cat has lost and has ended up attached to your (or Tom's) clothing, for example, then it is OK to say "a cat hair" or "some cat hair".

Personally, I would never say "The cat has nice hair."

Amy

[Jamie (K)]

It's not right. We don't say that cats have nice hair. We say they have nice fur. If the hair is still on the cat, it's fur. If one individual hair has fallen off the cat and is now on someone's coat, we say there is a cat hair on his coat, not a hair of a cat.