How to say “coffee” in 44 different languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
- кофе[ˈkofʲe] Russian
- 咖啡/kʰä⁵⁵ feɪ̯⁵⁵/ Chinese
- 커피[kʰʌ̹pʰi] Korean
- קפה/kaˈfe/ Hebrew
- কফি/kɔfi/ Bengali
- காபி/kɑː.piː/ Tamil
“coffee” in French: café · German: kaffee · Italian: caffè · Portuguese: café · Chinese: 咖啡 · Korean: 커피 · Russian: кофе · Turkish: kahve
It is commonest in Urdu, where کافی is the 172nd most used word.
Coffee in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans koffie/ˈkɔ.fi/ #301
- Arabic بن/ibn/ coffee beans, coffee #670
- Basque kafe/ˈkafe/ #560
- Bengali কফি/kɔfi/ #500
- Bosnian kafa/kǎfa/ #2,286
- Bulgarian кафе[kɐˈfɛ] #567
- Catalan cafè[kəˈfɛ] #806
- Chinese 咖啡/kʰä⁵⁵ feɪ̯⁵⁵/ #254
- Croatian kava/kǎʋa/ #1,874
- Czech kafe[ˈkafɛ] #1,086
- Danish kaffe/ˈkɑfə/ #622
- Dutch koffie/ˈkɔ.fi/ #666
- Esperanto kafon/ˈkafon/ #1,039
- Estonian kohvi/ˈkohvi/ #653
- Finnish kahvia/ˈkahvɪa/ #974
- French café/ka.fe/ #588
- Galician café/kaˈfɛ/ #598
- German kaffee/ˈkafe/ #694
- Hebrew קפה/kaˈfe/ #556
- Hungarian kávét[ˈkaːveːt] #1,050
- Icelandic kaffi[ˈkʰaf(ː)ɪ] #514
- Italian caffè/kafˈfɛ/ #1,251
- Korean 커피[kʰʌ̹pʰi] coffee, especially the beverage #451
- Latvian kafiju/ˈkafiju/ #838
- Lithuanian kavos/ˈkaːvoːs/ #500
- Macedonian кафе[ˈkafɛ] #497
- Malay kopi/ˈkopi/ #697
- Malayalam കാപ്പി/kaːppi/ #394
- Norwegian kaffe/kɑfːə/ #652
- Persian قهوه[qæɦ.ve] #476
- Polish kawę/ˈka.vɛ/ #1,418
- Portuguese café/kaˈfɛ/ #608
- Romanian cafea/kaˈfe̯a/ #719
- Russian кофе[ˈkofʲe] #633
- Serbian kafa/kǎfa/ #1,932
- Slovak kávu/kaːvu/ #516
- Slovenian kava/kàːʋa/ #824
- Spanish bar/ˈbaɾ/ bar, coffee shop, café, pub #1,004
- Swedish kaffe/²kafːɛ/ #710
- Tagalog kape/kaˈpe/ #1,463
- Tamil காபி/kɑː.piː/ #366
- Telugu కాఫీ/kaːpʰiː/ #290
- Turkish kahve/kahˈve/ #568
- Urdu کافی/kɑː.fiː/ #172
The speaker reads the word in the voice the LangX app uses for that language — synthesised, not a recording of a native speaker, so treat it as a guide. A row without a button has no reading we are free to use, or none we trust, yet. Voices for Bengali (google (bn_BD), CC BY-SA 4.0), Catalan (upc_ona (ca_ES), CC BY-SA 4.0), Estonian (news (et_EE), CC BY 4.0) and Slovenian (artur (sl_SI), CC BY 4.0).
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.