Meaning & use
petite pois
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Meaning
nounplural
Very small, tender green peas, picked young and valued for their sweet taste and delicate texture.
Grammar: Takes a plural verb and has no a: the petite pois are ready.
Patterns
- petite pois with something
The chef finished the sauce with a handful of petite pois and a little fresh mint.
I bought a bag of frozen petite pois because they cook in about two minutes.
Petite pois are sweeter than the larger garden peas my grandfather grew.
Common combinations
- frozen petite pois
- Frozen petite pois keep their color better than canned ones.
- buttered petite pois
- The lamb came with buttered petite pois and new potatoes.
- stir in the petite pois
- Stir in the petite pois just before serving so they stay bright green.
- petite pois soup
- She served a chilled petite pois soup as a starter.
- cook petite pois briefly
- Cook petite pois briefly, or they turn dull and soft.
Synonyms and how they differ
- garden peas
- These are the ordinary, larger peas, so petite pois suggests a smaller, sweeter and more refined product.
- baby peas
- This is the plain English equivalent and sounds less restaurant-like than petite pois.
- green peas
- It is a general term for any ripe green pea and carries no suggestion of small size or tenderness.
Word family
- pea noun
- the round green seed eaten as a vegetable
- petit pois noun
- the correct French singular-style spelling, also seen in English
- mushy peas noun
- a British dish of mashed, softened marrowfat peas
Commonly confused: petite pois or petit pois?
petite pois vs petit pois
In French the adjective is petit, so petit pois is the usual spelling; petite pois is common in English but regarded as an error by French speakers.
Practice
What are petite pois?
Choose one answer.
Petite pois are tiny, tender peas picked early. Marrowfat and split peas are bigger or dried, and the word names the vegetable, not a sauce.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “petite pois”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.