The leaves/straws of grass

[Naeem Afzal]

Hi teachers,


The leaves of grass are being dried. OR The straws of grass are being dried. Which one is correct?
Have you ever taken any interest in games? Correct?


Many thanks.

 

[JMurray]

not a teacher

(1) The leaves of grass are being dried. OR (2) The straws of grass are being dried. Which one is correct?
(3) Have you ever taken any interest in games? Correct?

"Straw" refers to the stalks of grains like wheat or barley, and usually after they have dried.
Dry grass, in my experience, is generally just called dry grass.
So (1) is the more correct, but without context I can't tell if it is a natural expression of the meaning you want.
Sentence (3) is correct.

 

[SoothingDave]

It's "blades of grass."

 

[JMurray]

I too would always say "blades of grass", but I hear "grass leaves", and then there's Walt Whitman.

 

[Rover_KE]

What about Walt Whitman, JM?

In my experience, dried grass is called 'hay'.

Rover

 

[JMurray]

Hay, of course.

Although I'm not sure that I've ever heard anybody say "leaves of grass" other than in reference to Whitman's work, I feel that the existence of that title along with the evidence of a handful of citations from general usage in COCA, suggests that the OP's example might be tenable.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Hay, of course.

Although I'm not sure that I've ever heard anybody say "leaves of grass" other than in reference to Whitman's work, I feel that the existence of that title along with the evidence of a handful of citations from general usage in COCA, suggests that the OP's example might be tenable.

Walt Whitman aside, what would a contemporary English speaker call them?

 

[JMurray]

Walt Whitman aside, what would a contemporary English speaker call them?

Blades of grass, almost certainly, just as I would. However COCA cites several recent fictional works that include the phrase "leaves of grass", and in 2006 Prevention magazine (again in 2011 on-line) advised us to: "…lop off the tops of those leaves of grass before they produce flowers and pollen". I don't know if such examples are customarily considered good evidence of contemporary usage.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Walt Whitman aside, what would a contemporary English speaker call them?

Blades of grass, almost certainly, just as I would. However COCA cites several recent fictional works that include the phrase "leaves of grass", and in 2011 Prevention magazine advised us to: "…lop off the tops of those leaves of grass before they produce flowers and pollen". I don't know if such examples are customarily considered good evidence of contemporary usage.

What kind of grass grows flowers? That quote doesn't sound like it refers to grass at all. There are plants, however that are referred to grasses.

 

[probus]

So to sum all this up for Naeem:

The leaves of living green grass are called blades rather than leaves because they are narrow.

Whole dried grass is called hay.

Once the nutritious part of the dried grass has been removed the remainder is called straw.

And the stem of living grass is normally called the stem, not the straw.

Other usages are probably poetic.

 

[SoothingDave]

Grass doesn't have a separate stem. Straw is the stem of grain plants, not grasses.

 

[probus]

Wheat, oats and bamboo are all grasses.

 

[Raymott]

Google Image Result for http://www.commodities.caes.uga.edu/turfgrass/georgiaturf/Turfgras/Assets/Diagram_Grass.gif

 

[SoothingDave]

I was thinking of grass like in a lawn. That is just blades.