Bananagrams
The same race, played in French
French Edition
Yellow fabric holds 144 cream tiles with black letters, mixed specifically for words formed in French.
$15.80
Rated 4.8 out of 5 by 78 players
Acceptable words depend on French spelling around your table, but the speed of the race stays untouched. You each build your own connected grid on the bare table until someone clears their hand and demands fresh letters.
Hands move fast as each Peel adds another tile to every grid at once. A difficult letter forces a quick rebuild before someone else calls for more.
| Players | 2–8 |
| Ages | 7 and up |
| A game runs | About 15 minutes |
| In the box | 144 letter tiles in a cloth banana-shaped bag |
| You also need | A table and players who spell in French. |
| The feel | Everyone plays at once |
How a game unfolds
The race itself is unchanged from Bananagrams; the letters in the bunch are a French mix.
Split once
Turn all the tiles face down in the middle. That pile is the bunch. Each player draws their opening hand and flips it on the call.
Build all at once
Every player builds their own crossword grid at the same time. There are no turns to wait for.
Peel repeats
Empty your hand and say so. Everyone draws one more, and the bunch shrinks by one per player.
Bananas ends it
When the bunch runs below the number of players, the next grid to go clean wins the check and the game.
A different bunch of letters
The same 144 tiles in a banana-shaped cloth bag, mixed for French instead of English. There are no bonus tiles and no extra rule in the pouch.
What makes it its own game
- Each Peel forces every player to take one fresh tile from the central bunch.
- Calling Dump swaps one unwanted tile for three fresh ones taken face down.
- Winning happens when the bunch holds fewer tiles than players and someone uses all remaining letters.
- Grids face inspection at the finish, and one invalid word removes that player completely.
Worth knowing before you open the box
The listing starts this one at two players where the English pouch starts at one, so the solo hand is not part of what the French edition claims to do.
Who it suits
Players who know the classic race in English will find identical rules here, adapted purely for French vocabulary. It suits fast thinkers who enjoy rapid anagrams together. A group with uneven language skills will find the race unforgiving for slower spellers.
Before your first game
Start with two players taking 21 tiles each face down on the table. Call Split together to flip them and begin arranging your separate grids. Take time before racing to agree on which French word sources your table accepts.
Elsewhere on the shelf
Still reading? That is usually a yes.
The classic race in French, in a plain yellow pouch with nothing else changed.
$15.80