beard

[jiang]

Dear teachers,

Could you please explain the differences between "thin beard" and "sparse beard"?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

 

[5jj]

I don't think I've come acoss a 'thin' beard. If I did, I would imagine it to be the same as a 'sparse' beard.

 

[BobSmith]

[not a teacher]

A "thin beard", TO ME, might mean "narrow", as a "pencil-thin mustache" is "narrow", though it sounds odd. I don't think I'd ever use "'sparse" with "beard", unless I was saying "The men in the room with beards were sparse".

I've heard "full beard", but am drawing a blank on an antonym. I might use "thinning beard", but that has a slightly different meaning.

 

[jiang]

Hi 5jj,

This is the sentence I found in a dictionary:
He stroked his thin beard.

Jiang

 

[Tdol]

Which dictionary? It's not wrong, but it does sound strange to me too.

 

[5jj]

Which dictionary? It's not wrong, but it does sound strange to me too.

It didn't sound right to me, but I see that COCA has ten 'thin beards' and only eight 'sparse beards'. Unfortunately it is not clear in any of the sentences whether 'thin' means 'sparse' or 'narrow'. If you have thinning hair, you are losing your hair - it is becoming sparse, so I go for the 'sparse' reading.

 

[SoothingDave]

I would think a "thin" beard was not very long, i.e. trimmed. "Sparse" implies to me that the beard is missing in parts, not fully covering the face.

 

[5jj]

This is what I think of as a sparse beard.

 

[jiang]

Dear Tdol,
It's from a Yaodao, website dictionary. But this is from Longman Contemporary Dictionary online:
3.[h=2]hair[/h]if someone has thin hair, they do not have a lot of hair:
a thin straggly beard
Could you please explain that?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

 

[5jj]

See my link in post #8, and also: straggly adjective - definition in British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionary Online

 

[jiang]

:-?
Hi 5jj,
I clicked "This" in your post but it doesn't work. I guess it is a picture. Is that right? I guess there is something wrong with that website. I shall try later.

Jiang

 

[Tdol]

Dear Tdol,
It's from a Yaodao, website dictionary. But this is from Longman Contemporary Dictionary online:
3.hair

if someone has thin hair, they do not have a lot of hair:
a thin straggly beard
Could you please explain that?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.

Jiang

The combination of thin + straggly works, but thin works less well alone IMO.

 

[BobSmith]

:-?
Hi 5jj,
I clicked "This" in your post but it doesn't work. I guess it is a picture. Is that right? I guess there is something wrong with that website. I shall try later.

Jiang

This was the picture linked http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cWQvFAPFy0s/SKXf0XIqKHI/AAAAAAAAANg/offwdMYdL9o/s400/chinese.jpg