# Spade, heart, club, diamond



## Dalian

Dear all, 
I would like to know how this four terms used in playing cards are said in different languages.
Thank you in advance!

Mandarin:
黑桃(hēi táo)，红心(hóng xīn)，梅花(méi huā)，方块(fāng kuài)


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## gao_yixing

Dalian said:


> Dear all,
> I would like to know how this four terms used in playing cards are said in different languages.
> Thank you in advance!
> 
> Mandarin:
> 黑桃(hēi táo)，红心(hóng xīn)，梅花(méi huā)，方块(fāng kuài)


 
But in Shanghai, heart is called 红桃(hong tao), club is called 草花（caohua).


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## ameana7

Hi,

In Turkish:

Spade is called: "maça"
Heart: "kupa"
Club: "sinek"
Diamond: "karo"


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## Cleo-Mi

Hello everybody,

In Romanian they are called:
spade = "pica" or "inima neagra" (which means black heart)
heart = "cupa" or "inima rosie" (red heart)
clud = "trefla"
diamond = "caro"


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## DrWatson

Hi people,

In Finnish:

spade: *pata *(_pata_ can also mean "a cauldron")
heart: *hertta*
club: *risti *(_risti_ can also mean "a cross")
diamond: *ruutu *(_ruutu_ can also mean "a screen" or "a square")


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## betulina

Hi, in Catalan: (I add the plural because that's how it's usually used)

spade - pica (plural: piques)
heart - cor (plural: cors)
club - trèvol (plural: trèvols)
diamond - diamant (plural: diamants)


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## ameana7

In Spanish:

Spade is called: "espada" or "pico"
Heart: "copa"
Club: "trébol" or "basto"
Diamond: "diamente",  but i'm not sure of the "diamente".  http://forum.wordreference.com/editpost.php?do=editpost&p=2064144


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## Tolovaj_Mataj

In Slovene:

Spade: pik
Heart: srce 
Club: križ 
Diamond: karo


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## Outsider

In Portuguese:

Spade: *espadas*
Heart: *copas*
Club: *paus*
Diamond: *ouros*

(We only use them in the plural.)


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## lazarus1907

ameana7 said:


> In Spanish:
> 
> Spade is called: "espada" or "pic*as*"
> Heart: "copa"
> Club: "trébol" or "basto"
> Diamond: "diam*a*nte", but i'm not sure of the "diam*a*nte".


Sorry for the corrections, but the right ones for the French cards are:

Spade: Picas
Heart: Corazones
Diamond: Diamantes
Club: Tréboles

Although they can be used in singular, they are usually used in plural.
The Spanish cards are different symbols, and I don't think you can mixed them:

Bastos (stick) -> club?
Espadas (sword) -> spade?
Copas (cup) -> heart?
Oros (gold) -> diamond?


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## Lemminkäinen

Norwegian:

Spade: *spar* (via German, from the Spanish _espadas_, sword)
Heart: *hjerter* (nynorsk: *hjarter*), 'hearts', from German and French (interestingly, the suit of cards _hjerter_ is pronounced in tone 1, while the plural of heart _hjerter_ is pronounced in tone 2.)
Club: *kløver*, 'cloves', from German and French
Diamond: *ruter*

French:

Spade: *pique*
Heart: *coeur*
Club: *trèfle*
Diamond: *carreau*


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## Mynd

In Icelandic:

Hjarta (Heart)
Spaði (Spade)
Tígull (Diamond)
Lauf (Club)


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## karuna

In Latvian:

Spade: *pīķis*
Heart: *ercens*
Club: *kreicis*
Diamond: *kāravs*


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## Dalian

Thank you all for the contribution, everybody 
I'm also curious to know what they are said in Cantonese. Can any Cantonese-speaking person help?


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## Bienvenidos

Wonderful thread/Persian:

Spade: Kara (KUH-RUH)
Heart: Lâl (LAWL)
Club: Pasha (PUH-SHUH)
Diamond: Qešt (KHESHT)


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## DrLindenbrock

Italian:

Spade: *picche*
Heart: *cuori*
Club: *fiori *(literaly, "flowers")
Diamond: *quadri *(literaly, "squares")

I put all of them in plural because that's the way they are used (e.g. eight of clubs = otto di fiori).


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## mcibor

Polish:

Among professional players you have

Spade: pik
Heart: kier
Club: trefl
Diamond: karo

however children use only:

Spade: wino (wine)
Heart: czerwo (a word derived from red - czerwony)
Club: żołądź (acorn)
Diamond: dzwonek (small bell, eg. doorbell)

and usually the order is different as well:

Heart: kier
Diamond: karo
Club: trefl
Spade: pik


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## Frank06

Hi,

In Dutch:

♠ schoppen (coll. schuppen)
♥ harten
♣ klaveren
♦ ruiten (coll. koeken)

Groetjes,

Frank


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## Maja

In Serbian:

spade - pik / list
heart - srce 
club - tref / detelina
diamonds - karo / kocka


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## Nizo

In *Esperanto*,
♠ _piko_ (the ace of spades: _la pika aso_)
♥_kero_ (the queen of hearts: _la kera damo_)
♣ _trefo_ (the jack of clubs: _la trefa fanto_)
♦_karoo_ (the king of diamonds: _la karoa reĝo_)


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## suslik

*In Estonian:* poti, ärtu, risti, ruutu


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## alex.raf

*Persian:*
Spade:     Peek (پیک) or Espeek (اسپیک)  _I don't know which is more common_
Heart:      Del (دل)
Club:        Geshniz (گشنیز)
Diamond: Khesht (خشت)


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## Alijsh

alex.raf said:


> *Persian:*
> Spade: Peek (پیک) or Espeek (اسپیک) _I don't know which is more common_
> Heart: Del (دل)
> Club: Geshniz (گشنیز)
> Diamond: Khesht (خشت)


I had never heard *espik*. Thanks.* pik* is commoner and for "club", we have also *khâj* (خاج) which is of course, less common.


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## jaxlarus

In Greek:

♠ μπαστούνι / πίκα [bastúni / píka]
♥ κούπα [kúpa]
♣ σπαθί [spathí]
♦ καρό [karó]

*J *βαλές [valés], *Q* ντάμα [dáma], *K* ρήγας [ríghas], *A* άσος [ásos]


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## elroy

The words used in Palestinian Arabic come from Spanish:


lazarus1907 said:


> Bastos (sticks) -> club? spades
> PA: بستوني - *bastóni*
> Espadas (swords) -> spade? clubs
> PA: سباتي - *sbáti*
> Copas (cups) -> hearts?
> PA: كبة - *kubba*
> Oros (gold pieces) -> diamonds?
> PA: ديناري - *dinári*
> (from _dinero_, not unlike _oros_ )


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## tom_in_bahia

I noticed that in Greek, Romanian, Turkish and several Slavic languages a word with similar spelling and/or pronunciation is used for diamonds: karo [ka.'ro]. Do all of these diverse languages borrow the word from the French "carreau" (which, if my French isn't too rusty, means _square_), or is it from another etymology - the French having simply found it coincidental to merge with _carreau _based on the pronunciation and shape?

Also, I noticed something to the effect of [pik-, pek-] as a word for spade in romance, scandanavian, slavic and various other groups...what is the origin on this? Again, I could sumise the correlation from the Spanish/Portuguese meanings...but does anyone know for sure?


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## robbie_SWE

tom_in_bahia said:


> I noticed that in Greek, Romanian, Turkish and several Slavic languages a word with similar spelling and/or pronunciation is used for diamonds: karo [ka.'ro]. Do all of these diverse languages borrow the word from the French "carreau" (which, if my French isn't too rusty, means _square_), or is it from another etymology - the French having simply found it coincidental to merge with _carreau _based on the pronunciation and shape?
> 
> Also, I noticed something to the effect of [pik-, pek-] as a word for spade in romance, scandanavian, slavic and various other groups...what is the origin on this? Again, I could sumise the correlation from the Spanish/Portuguese meanings...but does anyone know for sure?


 
The Romanian *caro* is directly borrowed from French _carreau _with the meaning you presented. *Pică* is also borrowed from the French _pique_, but here there is also a German word listed; _Pik_. The French word might be borrowed from German. 

 robbie


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## Setwale_Charm

Russian: 
пики, черви, трефы, бубны


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## kusurija

In *Czech*,
♠ _pík_ pl.:_píky _(the ace of spades:_ pikové eso_)
♥ _srdce _sg.=pl.(the queen of hearts: _srdcová dáma_)
♣ _trefa _or_ kříž_ pl.: _trefy _or_ kříže _(the jack of clubs: _křížový kluk_)
♦_káro_ pl.:_ kára_ (the king of diamonds: _kárový král_)

There are other type of cards (so called "German") where 
_píky ~ zelený, _(green)
_srdce ~ červený, _(red)
_trefy _or_ kříže ~ žaludy, _(acorn)
_kára ~ kule _(spheres)


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## Drechuin

lazarus1907 said:


> Although they can be used in singular, they are usually used in plural.
> The Spanish cards are different symbols, and I don't think you can mixed them:
> 
> Spanish -> English -> French
> Bastos -> Wands -> Bâton
> Espadas -> Swords -> Epée
> Copas-> Cups -> Coupe
> Oros -> Pentacles -> Denier



We use those symbols for some tarot cards (almost all the tarot deck used for divination and a few of the deck used to play).


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## mimi2

Vietnamese:
♠  = bích
♥ = cơ
♣ = chuồn
♦  = rô


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## Setwale_Charm

I would like to note however that in colloquial Russian clubs are often referred to as "крестья".


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## kusurija

In Lithuanian:
♠ _lapai_
♥ _širdys_
♣ _kryžiai_
♦ _bugnai_


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## heaa

*Hungarian:
*These are the terms used for French cards:

spade = pikk
heart = kőr
club = treff
diamond = káró

They all seem to have come from French.

We have "Hungarian playing cards", too, which have different names.
(literally they mean red, green, acorn, and squash or pumpkin)


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## CrazyArcher

♠ Don't know the proper name... From my experience, spade is called 'pika', borrowed from Russain
♥ 'lev' (heart)
♣ 'tiltan' (shamrock)
♦ 'yahalom' (diamond)


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## Nu971

♠  โพธิ์ดำ (Poh Dam - Black Bodhi tree leaf)
♥  โพธิ์แดง (Poh Daeng - Red Bodhi tree leaf - actually there are no red bodhi tree)
♣  ดอกจิก (Dok Jik - a kind of flower growing in river)
♦   ข้าวหลามตัด (Khao Lam Tud - Khao Lam means sticky rice roasted  in the bamboo cane, Tud means "cut")


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## yashar_nahvi

In Persian
Spades: Pik
Clubs: Geshniz (Khaaj)
Hearts: Del
Diamonds: Khesht


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## Saluton

So, Russian, to be more precise:
♠ пика _(pika)_
♥ черва _(cherva)_
♦ бубна _(bubna)_
♣ трефа_ (trefa)_

The variants Setwale_Charm gave are plural forms, which are also acceptable.
Пика and трефа are also called вини _(vini)_ and крести _(kresti,_ derived from _krest_ - cross), but these are considered mauvais ton by professionals.


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## greenie

This is what I learned playing cards in Costa Rica

spades - bastos
hearts - corazones
clubs - tréboles
diamonds - oros


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