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I'm new to Japanese so I'm working my way through Human Japanese, when I was adding the vocabulary to Quizlet I realized I didn't know how to type マスカット because I'm not used to seeing ツ used like that.

At this point I resorted to using Google translate to see it spelt out in romaji. As I did that I saw Google says that マスカット means muscat. When you enter green grape, it gets translated as midoriiro no budoo.

So my question is:

  • What foregin word is マスカット derived from?
  • Is マスカット an accurate translation for green grape?
  • What is the most commonly used word in Japanese for green grape?
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    "Muscat" is the name of a grape family: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscat_%28grape%29
    – Xeo
    Mar 23, 2015 at 12:19
  • ー is for double vowels (eg ハート, haato); ッ is for "double consonants" (eg ハット, hatto). Different IME's offer different ways of entering kana. Usually, ッ can be typed with xtu or xtsu, sometimes also ltsu or ltu. If you need it as part of a word, you can just double the consonant as well: hatto produces ハット.
    – blutorange
    Mar 23, 2015 at 12:34
  • I have removed your bonus question because we try to concentrate on one question at a time here at stackexchange. If you're still confused about the usage of ッ vs ー, please consider asking a new question. Questions regarding Japanese input methods are off-topic here on the main site, but you can ask this in chat.
    – blutorange
    Mar 23, 2015 at 12:40
  • Thank you @blutorange as you can tell I'm new here. Also you mentioned that "Muscat" is the name of a grape family, does that mean it's not how you should say "Green grape"?
    – Bryce Tucker
    Mar 23, 2015 at 12:45
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    @Urukann At least I (Dresden/Saxony) would call them rote und grüne Weintrauben in German. (red and green). Weiß (white) seems to be used as well, but I've never heard of it... interesting...
    – blutorange
    Mar 24, 2015 at 6:36

1 Answer 1

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What foregin word is マスカット derived from?

As already pointed out in the comment section, the word is derived from "muscat", a type of grape.

What is the most commonly used word in Japanese for green grape?

The usual word for "green grape" (precisely in this generality) is 白ブドウ.

Is マスカット an accurate translation for green grape?

In Japan, マスカット usually refers to マスカット・オブ・アレキサンドリア "muscat of Alexandria" (a type of white grape, which is large, sweet and fragrant), although there are other popular muscat grape varieties.

The 大辞林 entry doesn't explicitly say so, but by its description, it appears that it defines マスカット to refer to the "muscat of Alexandria":

マスカット
ブドウの一品種。アラビア半島原産。粒は大形で黄緑色に熱し、香りが高く甘味が強い。
[emphasis mine]

So, マスカット is certainly the best translation if your green grapes are of the variety "muscat of Alexandria", but for a generic "green grape" you might just want to stick with [白]{しろ}ブドウ (or 白ぶどう).

There are two questions on 知恵袋 asking about the difference between 白ブドウ and マスカット.

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