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Sebayanpendam Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

our bodies/our body

Hello,

Which should be used?

1. Our bodies need water. or

2. Our body needs water.

thanks.
  

Top answer

2nd answer is more appropiate OUR BODY NEEDS WATER.

  • 2nd answer is more appropiate OUR BODY NEEDS WATER.
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4 Answers
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2nd answer is more appropiate

OUR BODY NEEDS WATER.
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Hello again,

Can you please explain why 'our body needs..' is appropriate? In a sentence like "All children shook their heads to their teacher's question, the word 'head' is added with a letter 's' to mean plural. Why not 'body' is bodies when our indicates plurality?

Thanks
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sebayanpendamHello,
Which should be used?
1. Our bodies need water. or
2. Our body needs water.
thanks.
I would say number one is better.

You could say "My body needs water", "the human body needs water", etc.
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This is an interesting question. According to the American corpus, there are about 1500 hits of "our bodies" vs. 400 hits of "our body"? http://www.americancorpus.org/
But the question still holds: why? When would you prefer to use the plural to the singular? or are they int

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