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pays

country

noun peh-EE Common
Travel & Places Geography

Origin: Latin 'pagus' (district, village)

Also means

homeland

Usage Note

Pays is one of those French nouns that looks plural because of the final -s but is in fact the same in singular and plural — un pays, des pays. It can mean a nation (pays étranger = foreign country) or more intimately one's homeland or home region. Avoir le mal du pays means to be homesick.

Examples

"Ce pays est très grand."

Natural Translation

This country is very large.

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