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Large or vaste: explore a house and describe its space
Explore a French house to compare large, meaning wide, with vaste, meaning spacious or extensive. Practise doors, rooms, gardens and width measurements.
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In short
French large usually means wide: une porte large is a wide door. Vaste means spacious or extensive: une vaste salle has lots of space overall. For English “large” in the general sense of big, French often uses grand.
Yellow the idea to rememberBlue French to learn
Explore the house: find width and space
Find:
Does large mean large in French?
| French | English | Question answered |
|---|---|---|
| La porte fait un mètre de large. | The door is one metre wide. | How wide? |
| Le couloir fait cinq mètres de long. | The corridor is five metres long. | How long? |
| La pièce fait trois mètres de haut. | The room is three metres high. | How high? |
La largeur is width; la longueur is length; la hauteur is height. A vaste salon gives an overall impression of space. To check whether a sofa fits through the door, ask for la largeur de la porte.
What does au large mean?
Cette boutique propose un large choix de meubles.
This shop offers a wide selection of furniture.
Large describes the range of choices here.
Elle possède de vastes connaissances en architecture.
She has extensive knowledge of architecture.
Vaste can describe the extent of someone’s knowledge.
Both adjectives keep the same form for masculine and feminine singular nouns: un couloir large, une porte large; un vaste jardin, une vaste terrasse. Add -s for plurals: des portes larges, de vastes jardins.