How to Say "Drink Coffee" in Chinese

喝咖啡

hē kā fēi

To drink coffee in Chinese is 喝咖啡 (hē kā fēi).

The phrase is used to describe the act of consuming the beverage made from roasted coffee beans.

What does it mean word for word?

The phrase 喝咖啡 is composed of the verb 喝 (hē), meaning 'to drink' and the noun 咖啡 (kāfēi), meaning 'coffee'.

The phrase 喝咖啡 is a verb-object construction and does not change its form based on tense or person.

hē kā fēi

In many parts of China, you might hear people say they want to 'eat coffee' instead of 'drink coffee'. This happens because the verb 吃 (chī), meaning 'to eat', is sometimes used for much more than just solid food.
The characters for coffee, 咖啡, are a phonetic loanword that uses no meaningful semantic components. Unlike many Chinese words where each character has a distinct meaning, these two characters exist solely to mimic the sound of the English word 'coffee'.
Despite the popularity of 喝咖啡, China remains the world's largest tea-producing nation, and the cultural shift toward coffee is often seen as a symbol of 'westernization' or urban modernity.

他不喝咖啡。
He doesn't drink coffee.
This sentence shows how to use 喝咖啡 in a negative statement.
Tatoeba #1724523 by egg0073, translation #1724520 by CH
汤姆喝咖啡吗？
Does Tom drink coffee?
This sentence shows how to use 喝咖啡 to ask a question.
Tatoeba #4971580 by wzhd, translation #2261209 by CK
他們在家喝咖啡。
They drink coffee at home.
This sentence shows how to use 喝咖啡 to describe an action happening at a location.
Tatoeba #13549643 by LeviHighway, translation #4728622 by paper1n0
13 more sentences on Tatoeba

Two colleagues are talking in the office breakroom.

雨婷 Yuting

你想喝咖啡吗？
Nǐ xiǎng hē kāfēi ma?
Do you want to drink coffee?
俊杰 Junjie

好啊，我也想喝咖啡。
Hǎo a, wǒ yě xiǎng hē kāfēi.
Sure, I want to drink coffee too.
雨婷 Yuting

我们要不要去咖啡店？
Wǒmen yào bù yào qù kāfēidiàn?
Should we go to the coffee shop?
俊杰 Junjie

没问题，走吧。
Méi wèntí, zǒu ba.
No problem, let's go.

Sources

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