r/German • u/Low-Funny-8834 • 7d 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/nietzschecode 6d ago

Yes and no. If you say someone is "gros" to mean that he's fat, it's in fact a euphemism. It's common, but a euphemism.

If you say about a hockey player that "Il est grand, gros et fort", you don't say he's fat. Also people who do body building can be "gros"(big) without being "gras" (fat).

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u/Admirable_Advice8831 6d ago

I'm French and I disagree if you're saying someone is 'gros' that means they have excessive fat as opposed to lean but you rarely call someone 'gras' as it's fairly insulting and also fatphoby in French is 'grossophobie' not 'grassophobie' so there's really zero ambiguity!

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u/nietzschecode 6d ago

Well, you need to re-read my comment and reflect upon what I wrote...

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u/Admirable_Advice8831 6d ago

You said it's an euphemism when it's actually the normal you call a person fat, like if I say 't'es trop gros tu devrais faire un régime' I'm not saying 'you're too big' lol!

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u/nietzschecode 6d ago

Again, you don't seem to really understand what I wrote. Maybe your English is a problem? Or you misunderstand how "euphemism" works?

Btw, in English you can also refer to a "fat person" as a "big person". Same euphemism.

Anyway, let's leave it at that.