nan

«nan» in Mova's school dictionary: Grandmother; a child's name for their grandma — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a nan, nans); also nana, nanna; abbreviation NaN (computers)

meaning for a pupil

1) (informal, UK, Australia, NZ, Ireland) Grandmother; a child's name for their grandma. tree →

2) naan or nan bread: a soft flat bread from South Asia (often spelt "naan"). tree →

3) (computers) NaN means "not a number", an error value. tree →

4) In Irish place names such as Tir-nan-Og, nan means "of the". tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday stories and real speech: "I'm going to my nan's for tea". In the USA children more often say grandma or granny. Phrases: my nan, at my nan's, nan bread.

examples

• I'm staying at my nan's this weekend. tree →
• My nan makes the best apple pie. tree →
• Nan, can you read me a story? tree →
• We had curry with nan bread. tree →
• Her nan is ninety and still walks every day. tree →
• Nan and Grandad came to watch my school play. tree →
• One of the most pathetic, beautiful, and typical scenes in Irish legend is the return of Ossian from Tir-nan-Og, and his interview with St. Patrick. tree →

note

Capital N when used as a name: "Hi, Nan!". Lower case with "my": "my nan". It is friendly and informal, not rude. Not related to numbers except in computing, where NaN is an error, not a value.

In the corpora

• Scene: in Leeds, Nan is at the window with her tea.
• Scene: in Dublin, Nan sees a man with a tape measure outside the Kellys' house.
• Vivid example: in Dublin, Nan reads that an old actor has died.
• Let's just be sorry for them." Nan nods: "You're right, love."
• A palindrome reads the same forwards and backwards, such as mum, dad, Nan, level and noon.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «nan» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.