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French Expression of the Day: Grosso modo

The Local France
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French Expression of the Day: Grosso modo
Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash/Nicolas Raymond

No, we haven’t changed to Italian. This commonly used French expression does have Latin roots though.

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Why do I need to know grosso modo?

This French expression can help you to add nuance when making a point or explaining something. Plus, it comes from Latin, so it will make you sound smart.

What does it mean?

With its roots in medieval Latin, grosso modo - roughly pronounced gross-oh moh-doh - means ‘roughly speaking’, ‘more or less’, or ‘in broad terms’. 

The benefit of using grosso modo is that it serves as kind of a disclaimer that allows the speaker to admit that they’re being a little bit less precise, while still presenting information or making an argument.

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It can also allow you to give a quick explanation of something by making an approximation, as well as letting the listener know that the information you're offering is 'in the ballpark' though not exact.

So, if you want to emphasise that you’re not going into minute detail on a subject, grosso modo is appropriate.

Grosso modo comes from the medieval latin grossus modus, meaning ‘in a rough way’. It’s use has been established as early as the 14th century.

French is a romance language, and the use of Latin expressions is quite common; examples include a contrario (on the contrary’), a priori (‘in principle’), and alea jacta est (‘the die is cast’) - and that’s just starting with the letter ‘A’. 

Since grosso modo comes from Latin and thus carries a scholarly connotation, it’s great for formal situations (unlike a much of the vocabulary we explain here), as well as informal ones. 

Simple French options for communicating the same ideas as grosso modo include environ and à peu près (‘around’/’about’), or sans entrer dans le détail (‘without going into detail’).

There is also grosso merdo and mosso grodo, which are just humorous ways of distorting the original phrase by blending in the word merde (assuming you know what that means already) or switching the first letters around.

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Use it like this

Elle a répété grosso modo ce qu’il avait dit hier. - She repeated more or less what he had said yesterday.

Je vais expliquer grosso modo comment ça fonctionne. - I’m going to explain in broad terms how it works.

C’est grosso modo un tiers de mon salaire. - That’s roughly a third of my salary.

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