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I shaved my beard this morning.
I shaved my face this morning.

Which one is the correct sentence?

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  • By "bear", do you mean "beard"? I'm just kidding. :)
    – Sid
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 16:59
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    Um… do you mean beard, not bear? Or do you enjoy keeping dangerous pets as a hobby?
    – PLL
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 17:00
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    I really have a bear I shave all the weekends, but as it seems there are WWF associates, let's change the question. ;-)
    – avpaderno
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 17:03
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    @kiamaluno: in that case the answer would be “well, which one did you shave this morning: the bear, or your face”? :-)
    – PLL
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 17:11
  • Thanks for changing, bear has a rather NSFW connotation for native German speakers. (^_^)
    – RegDwigнt
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 17:26

3 Answers 3

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They are both reasonable sentences; they mean slightly different things. But the most common and idiomatic thing to say would be simply

I shaved this morning.

If you are male, then unless context explicitly suggests otherwise, this will be taken to mean that you shaved your face. (If you’re female, then legs and/or armpits will probably be the default interpretation.)

I shaved my face this morning.

means essentially the same, and is a bit less idiomatic, but would be used to clarify the meaning if context could suggest shaving something else — if, for instance, you also regularly shave your head, then you might want to use this one.

I shaved my beard this morning.

is again less common, and more specific. You would be more likely to use this if you sometimes grow a significant beard, and less likely to use it if you shave every day.

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First, That's beard.

Second, you can use both.

See the Examples:

I wish he'd shave off that awful beard.

I've decided to shave off my beard.

And for face:

Before using the device, you should learn how to shave your face.

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You shave off a beard.

You shave your face.

That is the simple difference.

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  • 3
    that was my first reaction too, but apparently that distinction isn’t as consistent as I thought; looking around on the internet reveals that plenty of people use the phrasing “shave [my/your/etc.] beard” — going by google hits, it’s only slightly less common than “shave off [my/your/…] beard”. Although I will definitely agree: you do not “shave off your face”! :-)
    – PLL
    Commented Jan 28, 2011 at 17:17

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