Recherche parmi différents professeurs en Anglais…
Aliona
Big vs Great Hello everybody!
I need help. Today I have had a dispute with my Boss. Can we use the name  'Great American Breakfast" instead of  "Big American Breakfast" for dish on menu ?It is grammatically correct? Or it is correct but unusal for using ?
Thank you in advance

Commentaires · 6

4

It's fine, but not for the reason you might think.

In modern English, 'big' and 'great' have different meanings: 'big' is the opposite of small, while 'great' is the opposite of insignificant. 'Great' means excellent, important, illustrious - it doesn't mean 'big'.

So while a 'Big American Breakfast' just means that it's large, 'Great American Breakfast' suggests a famous breakfast,  perhaps something belonging to a grand tradition - a breakfast which represents the 'greatness' of all things American...  Yes, if you order something called 'Great American Breakfast' it will certainly be big, but there's more to it than mere size.

2
"Great American Breakfast" makes me think of "The Great American Novel". It would have to be a really fantastic breakfast to earn that name!
1

You might be interested in this (slightly silly) chart:

https://www.xkcd.com/2122/

1
It is grammatically correct. Though be careful about one point. Because you have capitalised it this points readers towards something they would be expected to know about already. In the UK we have advertised a "Big English Breakfast", and I apologise in advance to my esteemed friends across The Pond (which I have deliberately capitalised), which pursuers of menus will already know to be eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, mushrooms, toast and maybe a couple of other items. I presume a "Big American Breakfast" would contain roughly the same. A "Great American Breakfast" may be the same, or differ slightly, of differ considerably from a "Big American Breakfast", it depends upon usage really.
1
i think great is right 

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