Pesant d’or in the last sentence

Anne D.C1Kwiziq Q&A regular contributor

Pesant d’or in the last sentence

  I’m wondering what pesant is grammatically in the sentence "Ces informations valent leur pesant d'or !" - a gerund? Or is pesant d’or a fixed expression?

Asked 8 months ago
Maarten K.C1 Kwiziq Q&A super contributor Correct answer

Anne, 

the expression here is ‘ valoir son pesant d’or ‘. 

Pesant is mostly used as an adjective, but is a masculine noun as used here and in a very limited number of other expressions.

wordreference is quite good for checking expressions with translated explanations. Larousse also includes many expressions with explanations and definitions in French. Both are available in free online versions.

 https://www.wordreference.com/fren/pesant%20d'or

 https://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/pesant/59870

 https://dictionnaire.lerobert.com/definition/pesant

Anne D. asked:

Pesant d’or in the last sentence

  I’m wondering what pesant is grammatically in the sentence "Ces informations valent leur pesant d'or !" - a gerund? Or is pesant d’or a fixed expression?

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