Here's a chart which shows the major parts of the body: obviously not to be used for an anatomy lesson! Some words are used mainly in the medical profession - others are more popular. You can use this list for pronunciation practice, particularly the practice of vowel sounds.
Click here to listen to the words.

 

Human body

1 - hair
2 - head
3 - eye
4 - ear
5 - nose
6 - lips
7 - face
8 - neck
9 - shoulder
10 - arm
11 - elbow
12 - wrist
13 - hand
14 - thumb
15 - fingers
16 - breast
17 - chest
18 - stomach/tum/
tummy
19 - abdomen
20 - bottom
21 - thigh
22 - leg
23 - knee
24 - ankle
25 - foot/feet
26 - big toe
27 - toes

 

 



 

 

Roger has written a poem on the parts of the body: click here to listen to it.

Parts of the body
From head to toe,
But for the sake of rhyme
And pronunciation practice
This time they are not in order.

On your head is your hair
You can wear your hair long
Or you can wear your hair short

On your face
your eyes, nose and lips
are placed.
And at the side
are your ears
to help you hear.

You hear with your ears,
You see with your eyes,
You smell with your nose
And kiss with your lips.

Your lips are about one metre
from your hips
- shake your hips!
And your nose is nearly two metres
from your big toe
if you grow full-size.
And don't forget your eyes
- they're about one metre
from your thighs.
And your lovely white teeth
- about two metres from your dainty feet!

Let's add them together:

Two lips and two hips,
One nose, two big toes,
Two eyes and two thighs,
Lots of lovely white teeth
And two dainty feet

That's well over thirty body parts, I suppose!
Add on fingers, two thumbs,
And every other toe.
That's well over sixty, as far as I know!

Your breast is the upper part
of your chest.
Between your chest and your legs
is your abdomen.
At the front is your tum
- short for tummy
At the rear is your bum
- short for bottom!
Between your bum and your tum
Are your thighs - roughly speaking.

Joints are formed where two bones meet
Your upper and lower arms are joined at your elbows
Your upper and lower legs are joined at you knees
Your wrists join your hands to your arms
And your ankles your feet to your legs.

Your bones are covered by flesh, blood and skin.
And it's the skin that holds it all in.

Your organs are all inside - don't let them escape.
They're all very busy - fully awake.
We'll touch them in order.
Get as close as you can:

· brain: make me think
· lungs: breathe in and breathe out
· heart: I can feel you beating
· stomach: I can hear you rumbling when I'm hungry
· bladder: I'll empty you when you're full

We sometimes say that we are only flesh and blood
And made up of feelings which we cannot touch.

   

Glossary:

Tum: your tum or tummy is the part at the front of your body, just below your waist.

I'm going to be doing a lot of sunbathing this summer, so I don't want my tummy to show.

It can also be used to refer informally to stomach, i.e. the parts inside your body where food is digested. In this sense tummy, as an alternative to stomach, is often used by children or by adults talking to children:

Jonathan's got tummy ache from eating too many unwashed strawberries.

Bum: your bum is the part of your body which you sit on. It is frequently used in informal English and is slightly rude:

Do you think my bum looks too big in these jeans?

More neutral alternatives would be bottom or backside.

Dainty feet: feet which are dainty are small, delicate and pretty.