Card games are played by people from all over the world – and while bridge terms are predominantly in English, you might find yourself stuck for individual words when discussing it away from an active game.

Here are some quick resources for multilingual card playing that could come in handy for international players.

Know of more? Add your resource to the comments section.

Klingon

While Klingon might be a fictional language, this hasn’t stopped people from speaking it. Many fans of the Star Trek Universe also happen to be fans of cards and TCG’s – and I discovered this appropriate link listing new Klingon words which includes the appropriate terms for poker.

Pokerology took this concept a bit further with an article on Star Trek, Klingon, linguistics and poker.

TCG-Specific

Here’s a unique discussion seen on the /magicTCG subreddit discussing just how players take to complicated trading card terms in other languages (and whether they use translated terms or English ones to make their plays).

French

While looking for general card-playing resources, I discovered this interesting post on Transparent about how to go over a card deck in French – and it’s great for anyone serious about either language learning or cards. (It’s also a lot less confusing than trying to rely on Google Translate for your card communications.)

Names of Ranks & Suits

A link I’ve referenced several times before, here’s an extremely handy table that tells you the Names of Ranks & Suits in several languages. It’s one of the most extensive references I’ve found so far when looking through bridge references in other languages or trying to decode a discussion.

Playing Card Names (in Different Languages)

For general playing card names listed in different languages, here’s a great resource from Serena Powers. The same website is also home to other card and esoteric correspondence tables which might be useful depending what you’re into.

Russian

Here’s a great link from Lang-8 that discusses card suits (and a few different general card terms) in Russian.

Teckenspråk

A rare (though great) reference for Swedish Sign Language appears at this link on the word “bridge”.

For how to sign other things, click around.

Afrikaans

While there are many Afrikaans bridge players, there aren’t as many Afrikaans bridge resources. Here’s a word list hosted on ProLingua (PDF) that should get players up to speed.

Bridge Playing in Spanish

Hosted on Jstor.org, here’s a great 1943 link for “Bridge playing in Spanish” with some translations listed.