How to say “tea” in 44 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.
It is commonest in Malayalam, where ചായ is the 257th most used word.
- Afrikaans tee #580
- Albanian çaj #1,165
- Arabic شاي #1,381
- Basque tea #629
- Bengali চা #518
- Bosnian čaj #1,209
- Bulgarian чай #941
- Croatian čaj #1,081
- Czech čaj #1,272
- Danish te #1,235
- Dutch thee #1,168
- English tea The tea plant; a variety of this plant #915
- Esperanto teon #1,396
- Finnish teetä #1,797
- French thé #1,154
- Galician té #1,179
- Georgian ჩაი #1,174
- German tee #1,265
- Greek τσάι #1,010
- Hebrew תה #952
- Hindi चाय #753
- Hungarian teát #1,788
- Icelandic te #1,010
- Indonesian teh the tea plant #1,034
- Italian tè #2,114
- Latvian tēju tea plant #1,373
- Lithuanian arbatos tea plant #654
- Macedonian чај #1,002
- Malay teh The tea plant; Camelia sinensis #829
- Malayalam ചായ tea, beverage made from the brewed leaves or… #257
- Norwegian te #1,189
- Persian چای #2,468
- Portuguese chá tea plant #1,212
- Romanian ceai tea bush #1,103
- Russian чай #1,742
- Serbian čaj #1,026
- Slovak čaj #701
- Slovenian čaj #514
- Spanish té #1,103
- Tamil டீ tea, the beverage #1,311
- Telugu టీ #803
- Turkish çay #938
- Ukrainian чай #1,061
- Urdu چائے #1,862
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.