# 头 / 首



## themadprogramer

您好多人

What exactly is the difference between 头 and 首?

I know that 头 's a classifier for animals and 首 is for songs an what not anything else?


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## fyl

You are right that they are classifiers for different things.
When they are used as nouns, they both mean "head". 头 is more commonly used modern language (but 脑袋 is even more common in spoken language), 首 appears in fixed phrases.


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## brofeelgood

头 - animals - 一头牛, 两头猪, 三十四头驴

One exception I can think of: 一头乌黑的长发 (a headful of jet black hair)

首 - songs and poems - 一首歌, 两首诗


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## themadprogramer

Anything else noteworthy?


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## wendy1445xh

您好多人 what's this?
Do you means you guys?


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## sykbod

1. Both can be used to represent "Head".
in this situation:
    头 is more common.
    首 is formal(not colloquial) and you will be able to see this word in ancient Chinese prose. 
2. Both can be used to represent "one end (of the project)"
3. 首 can be used to represent "The first/most important/beginning/leader or Senior(in rank)". For example: 首要(key/the most important) 首长(leader/senior official)
4. 首 is a measure work for poems of songs. For example: 一首歌(you cannot say 一歌) = 1 song


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## xiaolijie

wendy1445xh said:


> 您好多人 what's this?
> Do you means you guys?


您好多人 = Hi everyone!


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## kun2kun

sometimes they have different meanings when used with a same word
首领 = 头领 = a leader
but 首脑 = a leader of an organization
头脑 = human (animal) brain

Also, I'm not sure about this but I think
砍头 is more common than 砍首
斩首 is more common than 斩头
correct me if I‘m wrong.


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## SuperXW

Better study Chinese from words and short expressions, not from separate characters. You can't just replace any foreign word with a Chinese character. There are fixed expressions and different grammar rules.
Otherwise you'll end up with confusing sentences like 您好多人...


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## seinword

The correct expression of "Hi everyone" in Chinese is 大家好.


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## Wangxinqing

I really do not believe a native Chinese speaker would say "您好多人”. This is not correct and we do not use it.


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## Wangxinqing

These two characters could have many different meanings in different settings.
Here I am only talking about their differences when both are used as "head" or related scenarios. 

1. As pointed above, "首 is formal (not colloquial) and you will be able to see this word in ancient Chinese prose." I think this is true but we still have many exceptions.
Examples: 最是你那一低头的温柔，仿佛一朵水莲花不胜凉风的娇羞。
              为严将军头，为嵇侍中血。
Here you can see that in Chinese poses, 头 rather than 首 is used sometimes.

2. 首 can be used as a verb and means "head (= to go in a specified direction or toward a specified place)"
Example: 鸟飞反故乡兮，狐死必首丘。


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## kenosdi

something else to point out here is 人头数, it means headcounts.


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## Rethliopuks

A theory that says that 首 is the original word for "head (body part)" but as the language evolved, to the stage of Early Middle Chinese at the latest, it couldn't distinguish 首 and 手 phonetically anymore (which according to this reconstruction were distinct in Old Chinese), so people started to replace 首 with 头, but 首, anyway, is a common word from an established period so its influence (when meaning "head") just continued.


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