giant of a man vs a giant man

[AlexAD]

Hello.

Does the 'giant of a man' give you more impression than the 'a giant man' or there is no difference between them?

Thanks, Alex.

[emsr2d2]

Hello.

Does the 'giant of a man' give you more impression than the 'a giant man' or there is no difference between them?

Thanks, Alex.

We wouldn't say "a giant man". We'd just say "a giant". The adjective you probably want is "gigantic".

A "giant of a man" is more emphatic though.

He is very tall.
He is a giant.
He's a gigantic man.
He's an absolute giant of a man!

Note that gigantic might not mean very tall - it could mean he's very large (either fat or just has an extremely large physical frame).

[BobK]

... but 'giant' is sometimes used as an adjective, especially in the names of animals - such as the Giant Sloth (also known as Ground sloth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Perhaps because of this use in animal names, I would regard as acceptable 'The Yeti is a sort of giant man, said to live in parts of Tibet'. In this case the sords 'sort of' imply that we are dealing not with a gigantic man, but with a giant-like being that looks a bit like a man.

b