How to say “tea” 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.
- té/ˈte/ Spanish
- чай[t͡ɕæj] Russian
- شاي/ʃaːj/ Arabic
- चाय/t͡ʃɑːj/ Hindi
- τσάι/ˈt͡sa.i/ Greek
- תה/te/ Hebrew
“tea” in Spanish: té · French: thé · German: tee · Italian: tè · Russian: чай · Arabic: شاي · Hindi: चाय · Turkish: çay
It is commonest in Malayalam, where ചായ is the 257th most used word.
Tea in other languages, A to Z
- Afrikaans tee/tɪə̯/ #580
- Albanian çaj/t͡ʃaj/ #1,165
- Arabic شاي/ʃaːj/ #1,381
- Basque tea/ˈtea/ #629
- Bengali চা/t͡ʃa/ #518
- Bosnian čaj/t͡ʃâj/ #1,209
- Bulgarian чай[t͡ʃa̟j] #941
- Croatian čaj/t͡ʃâj/ #1,081
- Czech čaj[ˈt͡ʃaj] #1,272
- Danish te/ˈteːˀ/ #1,235
- Dutch thee[teɪ̯] #1,168
- English tea/ti/ The tea plant; a variety of this plant #915
- Esperanto teon/ˈteon/ #1,396
- Finnish teetä/ˈteːtæ/ #1,797
- French thé/te/ #1,154
- Galician té/ˈtɛ/ #1,179
- Georgian ჩაი[t͡ʃʰäi] #1,174
- German tee/teː/ #1,265
- Greek τσάι/ˈt͡sa.i/ #1,010
- Hebrew תה/te/ #952
- Hindi चाय/t͡ʃɑːj/ #753
- Hungarian teát[ˈtɛaːt] #1,788
- Icelandic te[ˈtʰɛː] #1,010
- Indonesian teh/ˈtɛh/ the tea plant #1,034
- Italian tè/ˈtɛ/ #2,114
- Latvian tēju/ˈteːju/ tea plant #1,373
- Lithuanian arbatos[ɐr²ˈbɑːtoːs] tea plant #654
- Macedonian чај[t͡ʃaj] #1,002
- Malay teh/ˈteh/ The tea plant; Camelia sinensis #829
- Malayalam ചായ/t͡ʃaːjɐ/ tea, beverage made from the brewed leaves or… #257
- Norwegian te/teː/ #1,189
- Persian چای[t͡ʃʰɒːj] #2,468
- Portuguese chá/ˈʃa/ tea plant #1,212
- Romanian ceai/t͡ʃe̯aj/ tea bush #1,103
- Russian чай[t͡ɕæj] #1,742
- Serbian čaj/t͡ʃâj/ #1,026
- Slovak čaj/t͡ʃaj/ #701
- Slovenian čaj/t͡ʃáːj/ #514
- Spanish té/ˈte/ #1,103
- Tamil டீ/ʈiː/ tea, the beverage #1,311
- Telugu టీ/ʈiː/ #803
- Turkish çay/ˈt͡ʃaj/ #938
- Ukrainian чай[t͡ʃai̯] #1,061
- Urdu چائے/t͡ʃɑː.eː/ #1,862
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) 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.