Fruit in English

English Vocabulary

A fruit is the part of a plant that has seeds and flesh (edible covering). A fruit is normally sweet (or sometimes sour) and can be eaten in its raw (uncooked) state. Fruit are the way plants disseminate their seeds.

Grammatically, do you say Fruit or Fruits?

The word Fruit is a noun. The word is an exception where the noun is both countable and uncountable. So the plural of Fruit can be either Fruit OR Fruits.

When we think of Fruit as a group collectively and in a non-specific way, then we tend to use the word Fruit (without S).

• You should eat five servings of fruit and vegetables every day.
• Fruit is good for your health.
• Would you like some fruit?
• There isn't much fresh fruit available in winter.

If you are emphasising the different kinds of fruit, then you can use fruits.

• My three favorite fruits are bananas, melons and strawberries.
• The supermarket has a wide selection of exotic fruits such as Papaya and Mango.
• The juice is made from a variety of fresh fruits.
• I love oranges and other citrus fruits.

If you are not sure which to use, the safest thing is to just use Fruit all the time.

Chart with Fruit and their names in English

** ESL Teachers ** We now have a version of this chart that can be used in your classroom. We have also included individual A4 Flash Cards of each individual fruit with its name. You can purchase it here: Fruit in English - Chart and Flash Cards

List of Fruit in English

• apple
• apricot
• avocado - the plural is avocados though you may see avocadoes (less frequently).
• banana
• blackberry
• blackcurrant
• blueberry
• boysenberry - is a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry
• cherry
• coconut
• fig
• grape
• grapefruit
• kiwifruit - sometimes written as two words kiwi fruit. It has the same form in singular and plural kiwifruit.
• lemon
• lime
• lychee - sometimes called litchi in US English
• mandarin
• mango - the plural of mango can be either mangos or mangoes.
• melon - the generic name for most types of melon
• nectarine - the same a peach but without fur on its skin
• orange
• papaya - In some countries it is called pawpaw.
• passion fruit - In United States it is written as two words while in some countries it is written as one word: passionfruit. The plural of passion fruit is either passion fruit or passion fruits. See our notes about the plural of fruit above.
• peach - same as a nectarine but with a slight fur on its skin
• pear
• pineapple
• plum
• pomegranate
• quince
• raspberry
• strawberry
• watermelon

Fruits that people think are Vegetables

The following are actually fruits in a botanical sense, though are commonly thought of as vegetables due to their culinary uses:

• avocado, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, peppers, pumpkin, squash, tomato, zucchini

Yes, that's right, the so called vegetables above are in reality fruit, not vegetables.

A piece of fruit

We often say a piece of fruit when we refer to one fruit (one apple, one orange etc) without specifying which one it is.

• She always has a piece of fruit with her breakfast.

The fruit of something

The fruit (or fruits) of something is an expression which means the good results that you obtain from something such as hard work.

• The award he received is the fruit of his hard work and always trying to do his best.

Frutas y Verduras en inglés (for Spanish Speakers)

Next Activities

Try our interactive game about Fruit in English (Name the photo of each fruit)

See our List of Vegetables in English (with some additional notes)

Teacher / Parent Resource

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