مقهى
“مقهى” (махка) — coffeehouse in Arabic. Noun, level A1, topic — at a café and a restaurant. Built on qahwa. Sitting for hours over one cup is the norm here, not an abuse of it. In a live sentence: “المقهى قريب من البيت” — The coffeehouse is close to home. Written with the characters م, ق, ه, ى. One of 9 words in the set “at a café and a restaurant” in the Arabic course.
In short
| Written in Arabic | مقهى |
| Read in Latin letters | махка |
| Translation | coffeehouse |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A1 |
What it is
Literally "a place of coffee": built from the same qahwa. In Arab cities it is where people sit for hours, talk and watch the street
This word does not reduce to a translation: the thing it names is not part of everyday life here, so a “translation” would end up a description in brackets. The easiest way to learn it is together with its surroundings — where you meet it and what it is for.
Why it looks that way
Built on qahwa. Sitting for hours over one cup is the norm here, not an abuse of it
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- المقهى قريب من البيتаль-махка кариб мин аль-бейтThe coffeehouse is close to home
Nearby words: at a café and a restaurant
Order, ask the price, ask for the bill. A short and entirely predictable conversation — a convenient place to test yourself for the first time.
- قهوةкахваcoffeeCoffee is one of the oldest Arabic loans in English: qahwa left Arabia with the Ottoman caravan and reached the coffeehouses of Europe. In Arabic the word is feminine
- شايшайteaCame from Chinese by way of Persian — the overland cousin of the same word English picked up at sea. In the cafe they will ask: with sugar?
- أريدуридI wantAfter it the noun comes with no preposition: urid qahwa — I want coffee. The polite request is built like this: urid… min fadlik
- مطعمматʿамrestaurantFrom the root "to eat": matʿam is literally "a place of eating". The same root as taʿaam — food
- الحساب من فضلكаль-хисааб мин фадликthe bill, pleaseHisaab is the cafe bill, the bank account and any reckoning: one word for everything that comes down to figures
- بيرةбираbeerIn half the Arab countries it is simply not sold. Where it is, they say bira — the same word that crossed from the Germanic languages into many others
- نبيذнабизwineA word from the wine-growing lands: in Lebanon and Tunisia it is poured in every restaurant. Where it is not sold, asking for it is not done
- مقهىмахкаcafeYou have met maqhaa as "coffeehouse": one word covers cafe and coffeehouse alike. The coffee itself is qahwa — the word English borrowed
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “at a café and a restaurant”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “coffeehouse” in Arabic?
Built on qahwa. Sitting for hours over one cup is the norm here, not an abuse of it
- How do you say “wine” in Arabic?
A word from the wine-growing lands: in Lebanon and Tunisia it is poured in every restaurant. Where it is not sold, asking for it is not done
- How do you say “the bill, please” in Arabic?
Hisaab is the cafe bill, the bank account and any reckoning: one word for everything that comes down to figures
- How do you say “I want” in Arabic?
After it the noun comes with no preposition: urid qahwa — I want coffee. The polite request is built like this: urid… min fadlik
- How do you say “coffee” in Arabic?
Coffee is one of the oldest Arabic loans in English: qahwa left Arabia with the Ottoman caravan and reached the coffeehouses of Europe. In Arabic the word is feminine
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “coffeehouse” in Arabic?
«مقهى», read “махка”. In a live sentence: “المقهى قريب من البيت” — The coffeehouse is close to home. Noun, level A1, from the set “at a café and a restaurant”; written with the characters م, ق, ه, ى.
How is “مقهى” written in Latin letters?
махка. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
Built on qahwa. Sitting for hours over one cup is the norm here, not an abuse of it. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.