At a café and a restaurant in Arabic
9 words in Arabic on the topic “at a café and a restaurant”: قهوة — coffee, شاي — tea, أريد — I want, مطعم — restaurant.
9 words on the topic
- 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
- مقهىмахкаcoffeehouseBuilt on qahwa. Sitting for hours over one cup is the norm here, not an abuse of it
- 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
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How it sounds in a sentence
A word list is a blank. Conversation is made of sentences, and these are the ones the words fit into most often.
- القهوة جيدة جداаль-кахва джейида джидданThe coffee is very good
- شاي من فضلكшай мин фадликTea, please
- أريد ماء من فضلكурид маʾ мин фадликI want water, please
- المطعم هناаль-матʿам хунаThe restaurant is here
- المقهى قريب من البيتаль-махка кариб мин аль-бейтThe coffeehouse is close to home
- الحساب من فضلك!аль-хисааб мин фадлик!The bill, please!
What is worth knowing about these words
قهوة (кахва) — coffee. 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.
شاي (шай) — tea. Came 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?
أريد (урид) — I want. After it the noun comes with no preposition: urid qahwa — I want coffee. The polite request is built like this: urid… min fadlik.
مطعم (матʿам) — restaurant. From the root "to eat": matʿam is literally "a place of eating". The same root as taʿaam — food.
Test yourself
Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than recognizing a familiar word — and therefore more useful.
- 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 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 “restaurant” in Arabic?
From the root "to eat": matʿam is literally "a place of eating". The same root as taʿaam — food
- How do you say “tea” in Arabic?
Came 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?
How to learn the set instead of just reading it
Order, ask the price, ask for the bill. A short and entirely predictable conversation — a convenient place to test yourself for the first time.
A list is read in a minute and forgotten in a day. What works: hide the translation, try to recall, get it wrong — and come back to the same words tomorrow.
- 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.
- Study spread over days wins not only in experiments but in ordinary classrooms, with real students.checked many timesMawson & Kang, 2025, Behavioral Sciences 15(6):771 · 22 studies, d = 0.54 (confidence interval 0.31–0.77). The authors warn that individual studies disagree widely.
Frequently asked
How do you say “coffee” in Arabic?
«قهوة», read “кахва”. 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. It is one of 9 words in the set “at a café and a restaurant” — the rest are in the table above.
How many café phrases do you need to start?
The whole set on this page is 9 words, but there is no need to start with all of it: the words you will need in the next few days are enough. Take them a few at a time — five to seven new ones per session.