Suppose a bullet struck the back side of someone's head:
- He was shot in the back of his head.
- He was shot in the back of the head.
Is one of them wrong? Are they different?
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Though both convey the message, I incline to use the first sentence. The possessive male pronoun fits better I guess. However the back of the head immediately after introducing He also seems correct.– Maulik VCommented Aug 18, 2014 at 7:02
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1 Answer
They mean the exact same thing, and neither is wrong. In English most of the time we use possessive determiners: these are words like 'his', 'my', or 'her'. However, sometimes we can use the definite article ('the') instead, usually when discussing parts of the body.
In some cases, the definite article is more natural. For example
The ball hit me in the knee.
sounds more natural (at least in British English) than
The ball hit me in my knee.
In other cases, 'the' sounds totally unnatural. I hurt the knee sounds incorrect; you should use
I hurt my knee.
In some cases, such as those in your question, either can be used and they both sound natural. Any differences between the two sentences you gave are very subtle and likely to be highly subjective.
Here is an article with more examples and discussion of this.
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1Aw! A grammar of errors? Article with grammar? And also, is it the errors of grammar? Am I missing something? Or should we still read further after that sentence from an authentic document? :P– Maulik VCommented Aug 18, 2014 at 10:47
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1@MaulikV :p I'm sure the author is referencing The Comedy of Errors, and is using the 6th or 7th definition of grammar as given here: 6. The basic rules or principles of a field of knowledge or a particular skill. / 7. (UK, archaic) A textbook.. (So it is a 'textbook'-like website describing errors people make with grammar!)– jfhcCommented Aug 18, 2014 at 12:10