What does tarragon mean?
Word: Tarragon
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Tarragon means a herb with long, thin, green leaves that cooks add to food for flavour.
How do you spell tarragon?
Syllables: tar - ra - gon
Tricky part: Only one r sound is heard in the middle of tarragon, yet the spelling has a double r. Pupils who write what they hear leave one out.
Watch out for: taragon, tarragone
Memory tip: Picture two rows of this herb in a kitchen garden: one r for each row.
Tarragon in a sentence
Example 1: The chef sprinkled fresh tarragon over the grilled fish.
Example 2: A pot of tarragon sits on our balcony beside the mint and the curry leaves.
Example 3: Just a little chopped tarragon changed the taste of the omelette completely.
Fun Fact
French cooks count tarragon among the four fines herbes, along with parsley, chives and chervil, and it gives bearnaise sauce its distinctive taste.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Insert the correct letters to form a word:
t_rr_g_n
a) a, o, a
b) a, a, a
c) a, a, o
d) e, a, o
Show answer
c) a, a, o. The opening vowel is the short a of cat; the two weak vowels after the double r are spelt a and then o.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
tarraggon
a) r
b) g
c) n
d) a
Show answer
b) g. A single g does the job in this herb's name, so the second one has to go.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. corriander 2. saffran 3. tarragon 4. cinamon
a) a herb with a sweetish taste rather like aniseed
b) a brown spice that comes from the bark of a tree
c) an orange spice picked by hand from crocus flowers
d) a herb whose round seeds go into curry powder
Show answer
a) a herb with a sweetish taste rather like aniseed. Cinnamon wants a double n, coriander a single r, and saffron ends in on, which leaves tarragon as the one correct spelling.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which dish would a cook be most likely to flavour with tarragon?
a) a mango ice cream with nuts
b) a sweet rice pudding with raisins
c) a roast chicken with lemon
d) a chocolate cake with icing
Show answer
c) a roast chicken with lemon
2. Which measure fits fresh tarragon in a recipe?
a) two fillets
b) two sprigs
c) two cloves
d) two slices
Show answer
b) two sprigs
