Home › Chinese › Glossary › cafeteria
Chinese vocabulary · Beginner
How do you say "cafeteria" in Chinese?
食堂
shí táng
In Chinese, "cafeteria" is 食堂 (shí táng).
Listen to the pronunciation:
Free Chinese learning game. No sign-up, play in browser. See all games
Pronunciation
Pronounced "shí táng", carrying second tone, then second tone: rising sharply, the way your voice lifts when you ask "what?". Most learners round off the tone too soon, so exaggerate it while practicing shí táng.
Writing and usage
食堂 is written using hanzi. It's a noun, part of the vocabulary taught in the Noun Town language learning game.
Example sentence
我们在学校食堂吃午饭。
wǒ men zài xué xiào shí táng chī wǔ fàn 。
We ate lunch in the school cafeteria.
Test your Chinese knowledge in our free browser games.
How to remember 食堂
Attach "shí táng" to the moment when we ate lunch in the school cafeteria; the pairing is hard to forget.
Related words
- principal 校长
- counselor 辅导员
- tutor 导师
- semester 学期
- curriculum 课程设置
- assignment 作业
- essay 随笔
- thesis 论点
- presentation 演讲
Browse all Chinese words in the glossary.
Questions about 食堂
How do you pronounce 食堂?
Pronounced "shí táng", carrying second tone, then second tone: rising sharply, the way your voice lifts when you ask "what?". Most learners round off the tone too soon, so exaggerate it while practicing shí táng.
Is 食堂 formal or casual?
食堂 is a neutral, everyday word that works in both casual and polite speech.
How is 食堂 used in Chinese?
食堂 is used the same way as the equivalent English noun. For example: 我们在学校食堂吃午饭。 (We ate lunch in the school cafeteria.).
Where can I practice Chinese words for free?
You can play free Chinese minigames in your browser on the Noun Town online games page, no sign-up required. Every word in the Chinese glossary also has native audio and an example sentence you can revisit any time.
"Cafeteria" in other languages
Curated by Callan Ratcliffe
This word is part of the vocabulary taught in the Chinese language learning game Noun Town, where words are introduced through play rather than memorisation. Want to play the full game? Get Noun Town on Steam.
Noun Town on PC, Mac & VR
These browser games are just a taste. The full Noun Town is a bigger, deeper 3D world: explore a living town, talk to its characters and learn thousands of words in immersive VR, Mixed Reality, or on your computer. It's an award-winning game with 590+ reviews on Steam and 12 languages to learn.
See the full game ▶Spot an error? Email us at contact@noun.town