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How to pronounce cafe

Cafe is pronounced ka-FAY in American English and KAF-ay in British English. It has two syllables, and the stress moves. The e at the end is not silent: it is the ay of day.

Say it yourself
  • 2 syllables
  • Stress on FAY
  • US and UK IPA
  • Checked in Cambridge and Oxford

cafe

Two syllables, stress on the second

noun · a small place where you can buy coffee, drinks and light meals

  1. kakæ
  2. FAYfeɪ (stressed)
  • US /kæˈfeɪ/ka-FAY Recorded voice
  • UK /ˈkæf.eɪ/KAF-ay Your device’s voice

Also said: US /kæfˈeɪ/.

IPA checked in the Cambridge Dictionary and Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries. The recording is American English.

Cafe, sound by sound

Each sound in the IPA, with a word you already know that has it.

US American English/kæˈfeɪ/

  1. ka

    • /k/as in cat
    • /æ/as in cat

  2. FAYstressed

    • /f/as in fall
    • /eɪ/as in day

UK British English/ˈkæf.eɪ/

  1. KAFstressed

    • /k/as in cat
    • /æ/as in cat
    • /f/as in fall

  2. ay

    • /eɪ/as in day

Say cafe yourself

Press the microphone and say it once. Your browser writes down what it hears: if it writes cafe, you were understood. If it writes another word, you see which sound changed.

Tip. The end is AY, not ee. US: ka-FAY. UK: KAF-ay. The e is not silent.

Record yourself and play it next to our recording: the quickest way to hear a difference.

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cafe

    Common cafe pronunciation mistakes

    What people often say instead, and how to fix it. Say ka-FAY.

    • NotKAYF

      Treating the e as silent, like in cave. The last syllable is AY.

    • NotKAF-ee

      Ending in ee. The end is the ay of day.

    • Notkuh-FEE

      Stressing the end with ee. The last vowel is AY.

    Cafe in a sentence

    Hear each one, slow it down, then say it. Words change a little when they join others, so practise them in sentences too.

    • Let us meet at the cafe on the corner.

    • She works part time in a small cafe.

    • We had lunch at a cafe by the river.

    How do you say cafe?

    Cafe is the English spelling of French café, and the last letter carries the ay sound of day. It is not silent and it is not kayf. Without the accent mark, many learners read it as one syllable.

    The stress changes between accents. In the US, it falls on the second syllable: ka-FAY. In Britain it falls on the first: KAF-ay. Both are normal in their country.

    In French, café means both coffee and the place that sells it. English borrowed the second meaning. The word is related to English coffee, which came into English through Italian and Turkish from Arabic.

    Words that sound like cafe

    Rhymes and words that share its tricky sound. Open any of them in the checker and say it.

    More words from other languages

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