Les marrons are sweet chestnuts; horse chestnuts, popularly known as conkers, are marrons d'Inde. They are of a similar appearance but from different trees. Also, I wouldn't recommend eating horse chestnuts.
Marrons, marrons d'Inde
- « Back to Q&A Forum
- « Previous questionNext question »
Lucien J.Kwiziq community member
Marrons, marrons d'Inde
This question relates to:French vocab and grammar list "Fall/autumn vocabulary in French"
Asked 4 years ago

Bonjour Lucien !
Thank you very much for this clarification :)
After looking it up myself, I have an explanation as to where the confusion occurs: indeed, in French, we tend to use the term marron on its own to refer to both edible sweet chestnuts (also called châtaignes) and non-edible horse chestnuts, the long name of which is indeed marron d'Inde.
Thanks to your feedback, I've now updated our vocabulary list to reflect these nuances :)
Merci beaucoup et bonne journée !
CélineKwiziq Native French Teacher
Bonjour Lucien,
Good point! Thank you for pointing this out. I did not know that.
Bonne journée.
Don't have an account yet? Join today
Ask a question
Find your French level for FREE
Test your French to the CEFR standard
Find your French level