How to say "café" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningcafé
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
maqhāמקהא
مقهى
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
beit kafeبِيت كَافِي
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Arabic root
ق-ه-وBuilt on the same root as قَهْوَة 'coffee' (already in your deck, with its own note tracing the whole Hebrew קפה journey) — a مقهى is quite simply 'a place of coffee'.
Related Hebrew word:קפהkafeكَافِيه
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
Urban Levantine turns qāf into a glottal stop, the same shift as قهوة→'ahwe.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo's café is il-ʾahwa — the same word as coffee.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija's café, like its coffee, is qehwa.
In a phrase
a small café