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Instant Coffee

by Simon Pure, December 18, 2012

Messages: 12

Language: English

Simon Pure (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 7:14:21 PM

Tuja kafo?

sudanglo (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 8:49:43 PM

Judging by the offerings of Google translate it looks like 'instantana kafo' would be admissible under rule 15.

Curiously, however, NPIV doesn't register 'instantana'.

The problem with Kaf-pulvoro is that could be just finely ground beans. But perhaps pulvora kafo would be OK.

Does Vikipedio have an article on coffee?

brw1 (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 9:25:11 PM

google translation gives the translation from English as "momenteto kafo" I'd go with that even though esperanto is not my expertise

Rugxdoma (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 9:44:30 PM

The Swedish word is "snabbkaffe", rapidkafo. That is quite close to tuja kafo.

matrix (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 10:32:11 PM

“Tujpreta kafo” may be a good translation of “instant coffee”.

T0dd (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 11:07:01 PM

matrix:“Tujpreta kafo” may be a good translation of “instant coffee”.
Ooh, that's a very handy word! Thanks for finding it for me!

sudanglo (User's profile) December 18, 2012, 11:20:02 PM

But suppose you had to translate dialogue in a novel or film.

- Would you like a coffee? I'm afraid we only have instant.

- Instant will be fine.

erinja (User's profile) December 19, 2012, 1:26:59 AM

I normally say "tujpreta kafo"

If I were looking for a rule 15 usage it would probably be "neskafeo", since Nescafe is well-known in many countries for this product. But in Esperanto settings everyone seems to call it tujpreta kafo.

Tjeri (User's profile) December 19, 2012, 6:44:48 AM

Why not Liofiliza kafo ?

sudanglo (User's profile) December 19, 2012, 10:09:43 AM

It always surprises me when I hear of couples who use Esperanto in their domestic life. It seems to me that they must either not talk about certain things, or use ad hoc terms, or have a constant headache as to how to name certain things in Esperanto.

The pattern of usage for Esperanto means that there all sorts of things from everyday life, which don't have regular names. Sometimes the naming of an article is obvious, but often not.

Maybe 'instant coffee' is a good example of this difficulty, maybe not. I can't recall ever hearing another Esperantist name this in conversation, but perhaps tujpreta is an established usage.

However nobody could argue that there are Esperanto supermarkets. Even the word for supermarket is somewhat problematic with the variants supervendejo, supermarkto, superbazaro, ĉiovendejo, magazenego and so on all having some claim.

Incidentally, logically, superbazaro is a shopping mall or complex, not an individual supermarket. In a bazaro you pay many times as you shop to individual shopkeepers or stall-holders, there is not one check-out for the whole complex.

EDIT: there are no hits in the Tekstaro for 'tujpret', 7 for 'supervendej' and 4 for 'superbazar' 2 for 'ĉiovendej'. Wells gives solvebla for instant (coffee etc)

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