We’re back again with another word for all the French language learners! This week, we’re looking at the adjective grand.
Listen to the pronunciation of this word in the audio clip below:
The translation of grand is fairly simple, but you might have already assumed that it means the same as the English word ‘grand’. While it can indeed mean this sometimes, its main translations are closer to the topic of ‘size’ rather than this idea of ‘grandeur’. Its most common translations are tall, large, big, wide, huge and great.
As an adjective, grand changes spelling depending on which noun it’s describing. We call this adjectival agreement. You’ll see it spelled as:
- Grand for masculine singular
- Grande for feminine singular
- Grands for masculine plural
- Grandes for feminine plural
In our examples of the word in action, you’ll notice that like many French adjectives of size, grand comes before the noun that it’s describing. We’ll start with some basic nouns before moving on to sentences and set terms or phrases:
un grand arbre a tall tree
une grande valise a big suitcase
des grands chiens large dogs
des grandes villes huge cities
Nous ne cherchons qu’une maison avec un grand jardin. We’re only looking for a house that has a big garden.
Ça ne va pas aller… le trou est trop grand. That’s not going to fit… the hole is too wide.
« Est-ce que vous pouvez décrire ces hommes ? » « Ils étaient tous grands et minces. » “Are you able to describe the men? ” “They were all tall and slim.”
Voltaire c’est un grand nom de la littérature française. Voltaire is a huge name in French literature.
Ma fille m’a dit qu’elle veut habiter aux États-Unis quand elle sera grande. My daughter told me that she wants to live in the USA when she’s grown up.
au grand air in the open air
au grand jour in broad daylight
les grands-parents grandparents
les grands malades very sick people
les grandes vacances summer holidays (literally, the long holidays)
avoir grand besoin de… to be in great need of…
il est grand temps de (faire quelque chose) … it’s high time to…(do something)
More advanced learners (or avid readers of our blog) might have also heard of the similar adjective gros. For more information about situations and topics where you would use each word, you can read our blog post on grand vs. gros.
We hope that you managed to learn a large amount of information from our blog. If you’re in great need of some more French language content, don’t worry – we’ll be back next here next week!
Written by Holly Tarbet, freelance copywriter and editor.
All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual writers, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Collins, or its parent company, HarperCollins.
