čaj
“čaj” — tea in Slovenian. Noun, level A0, topic — food and drink. č is "ch": chigh. In a live sentence: “Raje bi čaj kot kavo” — I would rather have tea than coffee. You can hear how it sounds right here. One of 190 words in the set “food and drink” in the Slovenian course.
In short
| Written in Slovenian | čaj |
| Translation | tea |
| Part of speech | noun |
| Level | A0 |
- čajtea
How to pronounce it
č is "ch": chigh
Why it looks that way
An ear-trap: čaj is tea, čakaj is wait. The cafe will ask which kind: črni, black, or zeliščni, herbal.
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.
- Raje bi čaj kot kavoI would rather have tea than coffee
Nearby words: food and drink
A menu, a market, a shop sign, the question “what is this?”. Food is the most frequent subject of the first weeks and the safest excuse to start talking.
- kavacoffeeFeminine gender: ta kava je dobra — "this coffee is good".
- vodawaterIn Slovenian cafes tap water comes free if you ask for it.
- kruhbreadfinal h is sounded: krooh
- mlekomilkTake the ml- cluster straight on, no vowel in between: MLEH-koh.
- pivobeerBeer is measured in volume: veliko is the large half-liter, malo the small one. Two beers take the dual: dve pivi.
- vinowineSlovenia is a wine country: people ask for cviček or teran by name, not by color.
- hranafoodShort, stress on the first syllable; the verb hraniti means "to feed, to nourish".
- sircheeseSpelled like the English "sir" but said with a long "ee": seer. One of the easiest words in the course.
- mesomeatStress the second syllable: meh-SOH. One letter away from mesto, which is "city".
- ribafishOn the coast the menu says morska riba, sea fish; in the mountains it is postrv, trout.
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “food and drink”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “tea” in Slovenian?
An ear-trap: čaj is tea, čakaj is wait. The cafe will ask which kind: črni, black, or zeliščni, herbal.
- How do you say “food” in Slovenian?
Short, stress on the first syllable; the verb hraniti means "to feed, to nourish".
- How do you say “bread” in Slovenian?
The h at the end is fully pronounced: krooh. A distant cousin of the English "crumb".
- How do you say “fish” in Slovenian?
On the coast the menu says morska riba, sea fish; in the mountains it is postrv, trout.
- How do you say “wine” in Slovenian?
Slovenia is a wine country: people ask for cviček or teran by name, not by color.
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 “tea” in Slovenian?
«čaj». č is "ch": chigh. In a live sentence: “Raje bi čaj kot kavo” — I would rather have tea than coffee. You can hear how it sounds right on this page. Noun, level A0, from the set “food and drink”.
Why does this word look the way it does?
An ear-trap: čaj is tea, čakaj is wait. The cafe will ask which kind: črni, black, or zeliščni, herbal. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
Can I hear how it sounds?
Yes, right on this page: click the word and it will play. The sound works on any phone, and nothing needs to be installed.