granny
part of speech
noun (granny, grannies); also «gran», «grandma», «nan»
meaning for a pupil
1) A friendly, informal word for your grandmother, the mother of your mum or dad. tree →
2) Used in some phrases for an old-fashioned or very careful style, like a «granny knot» or «granny glasses». tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories and everyday life it is a warm family word that tells the reader the speaker is a child or is close to the old lady. Phrases: «Granny's house», «stay with Granny», «granny flat» (a small home for an older relative next to the family house), «granny knot» (a weak, wrong reef knot), «granny smith» (a green apple).
examples
- Granny bakes the best apple pie in the world. tree →
- We stay at Granny's house every summer holiday. tree →
- My granny knits me a new scarf every winter. tree →
- Granny lives in a granny flat at the back of our garden. tree →
- In the story, Little Red Riding Hood takes a basket to her granny. tree →
- Tie a reef knot, not a granny knot, or it will slip. tree →
- I have two grannies, one in Ireland and one in Canada. tree →
- Granny Smith apples are green and sour. tree →
- ‘It’s me, Granny, your little Golden-hood. tree →
note
Plural «grannies» (y → ies). Written with a capital letter when used as a name: «Hi, Granny!», but small in «my granny». Informal; in formal writing use «grandmother». Other family words: «gran», «grandma», «nan», «nana». A «granny flat» is not a flat for every old person, it is an extra small home on a family's land.
In the corpora
- Granny puts conkers in the corners «for the spiders», and the cartoon squirrel remembers every nut it buries.
- Every Granny Smith tree comes from one seedling found in Australia around 1868 by Maria Ann Smith.
- Granny says a stork on the roof brings luck, and for many Ukrainians the stork stands for home and spring.
- His granny holds out a bun, «yào bu yào?», and you say yào.
- Granny puts the best piece in your bowl: «duō chī diǎnr!» (eat some more!).
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «granny» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.