Grapes & Raisin – French Mistake 🍇

I love grapes. Don’t you? Especially “le muscat”, this dark purple, super sweet variety. I thought I would make a fashion statement in this picture!

Grapes earrings, wine not?

Joking aside, the French vocabulary for grapes is often confusing for students. So let’s look at it.

1 – French Vocabulary For Grapes

1. Le raisin – fresh grapes, usually used in the singular in French.
2. Les raisins secs – raisins
3. Une grappe de raisin – a grape cluster
4. Un grain de raisin – a single piece of grape

2 – Grapes ≠ Grappe

I wonder if this is where the English word for grapes comes from, but in French “une grappe” is a cluster, specifically used for… grapes! “Une grappe de raisin”.

Today, I went to our local farm and found this beautiful grape cluster. I don’t think you could dream of a better example.

3 – Le raisin in French ≠ raisins in English

And here we go again… Watch out for the false friends… Le raisin (usually used in the singular entity) is grapes. Fresh, juicy grapes that is. Raisins, the dry kind, are always called “raisins secs” (in the plural this time).

4 – Frozen Muscat Grapes – A Wonderful and Healthy Treat

Use the floating blue icon in the bottom right to hide/reveal the English translations below or just click here.

J’adore le muscat. C’est une sorte de raisin très sucré, que l’on trouve seulement à la fin de l’été dans les magasins à Paimpol. Quand nous en voyons, nous en achetons beaucoup. BEAUCOUP. Plusieurs kilos.

I love muscat grapes. It’s a kind of very sweet grape, that you only find at the end of summer in the shops in Paimpol. When we see some, we buy a lot. A LOT. Several kilos.

Et puis Leyla égraine les grappes de raisins. C’est son boulot de le faire. Elle lave les grains de raisins, et puis les met à sécher sur des plats plats recouverts d’un torchon propre. Elle les laisse sécher toute la nuit.

Then, Leyla takes the individual grape out of the clusters. It’s her job to do it. She washes the grapes, then put it to dry on flat dishes covered with a clean kitchen towel. She leaves them to dry all night long.

Enfin, le matin, elle retire le torchon et met les plats plats dans le congélateur. C’est important qu’il y ait un peu d’espace entre les grains de raisin pour qu’ils puissent bien congeler, sans coller les uns aux autres.

Finally, in the morning, she takes away the kitchen towel and puts the flat dishes in the freezer. It’s important that there is a bit of space between the grapes so they can freeze without sticking one to the other.

Quand ils sont bien congelés, elle les verse dans un sac, et voilà ! Cela nous fait de délicieuse petite glaces naturelles, fraiches et sucrées, que l’on peut manger toute l’année !

When they are deeply frozen, she pours them in a bag and here you are! It make delicious little frozen bits, natural, fresh and sweet, that we can eat all year long!

Essayez, et dites moi si vous aimez (il faut cependant trouver du TRÈS bon raisin, c’est le secret !)

Try it, and tell me if you like it (however, you need to find REALLY good grapes, it’s the secret!)

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