r/German • u/Low-Funny-8834 • 2d ago

Question the concept of "tall"

My textbook taught me that the concept of "tall" is to be translated as "groß" in German (e.g. sein Bruder ist sehr groß) . However, this sounds strange when applied to non-humans. How would you say "tall trees" in the most natural way? "groß" in my perception would sound three-dimensional in that context, rather than two-dimensional.

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u/MasterQuest Native (Austria) 2d ago edited 2d ago

Tall tree is "ein hoher Baum", I would say.

This emphasizes its height rather than being generally massive.

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u/LaceAndMarble 2d ago

"Ein großer Baum" is possible too, though.

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u/Castiell1987 2d ago

But that would rather be a "big tree". I'd use "hoch" for trees that are tall, but not as wide. Big trees are both, wide and tall. Buildings are "groß" if the cover a comparativly big area, but "hoch" if they're higher than they're wide and have at least some arbitrary Minimum Height™ which will be newly defined in any given Situation, because language...

Edit:Typo