I'm writing a 40yo guy in our time & I wanna avoid making him sound he failed out of auditioning for a goodfellas reboot, for example do Chicagoans say bank card, debit card or something else? & do people over there still say flodgin? Im from the other side of the country so I don't know any of the slang over there Crossposted to r/nostupidquestions

Edit: according to an article I found when looking up Chicago slang “Flodging", "flodgin'", or "to flodge" is slang from the Chicago area that basically means lying, but can more precisely mean to pretend to be something that you are not or pretend to have something that you don't.” Based on the amount of Chicagoans who have no idea what it means I’’m assuming a unique variant of Chicago slang e.g era or culture specific or just plain made up🫠

Edit 2: according to the comments “Flodging” is specifically black Chicago slang. The story isn’t set in Chicago the main character is just from there, (he left in his early to mid 20’s) & it’s more of a movie script than a novel so phonetically spelling the accent should actually be helpful in the slim to none chance of it ever being preformed. The best way for me to describe the character himself is imagine if the main character from a detective noir movie wasn’t a stereotype, like he’s an actual modern day guy with a personality and lived experience, he got into scraps as a kid that his ma got onto him for, he’s got a favorite corner store, and he try’s to be nice to kids even though he dislikes them. I’m trying to write him as a person not “the protagonist” so little things like saying the frunchroom to a friend after a long day are perfect subtle ways to depth to his personality🙏

I'm new to reddit. Can you tell me what all the acronyms mean (TLI) and any info that will help me work it all out? What is a subreddit?

I'm really new to reddit and my friends keep on saying "/s" after I say something. I'm really lost as to what this means. Thanks.

It used to be, if you wanted to make an incisive and cutting sarcastic joke, you just made it. Obviously, text is a different format than conversation, so maybe something got lost in translation, but if you are a person who is good at making jokes - ie, the sort of person whose jokes anyone else wants to read in the first place - then you could take that in stride and maybe reword your joke for the medium you're actually operating in.

But then some people didn't like that, and decided that written discourse needed an equivalent to the snide condescending Chandler Bing tone of voice, as to say "Yes, this is something I took the time and effort and bandwidth to write, and post, but I in no way advocate for it".

The percentage of hilarious sarcastic "jokes" ending with a /s I've ever actually laughed at is insanely small (~3-5%, maybe?), and those comments were all readily understood as jokes without the markdown...

The only people the /s tag benefits are people who are bad at comedy, or too lazy to actually make a point of their own.

"But without the /s, I'll get downvotes from people who Don't Get It".

Fuck you, kid. That's comedy.

Edit: As many people have pointed out, it seems that the /s predates Reddit. I'd never seen it before here, but everything comes from somewhere. Really doesn't have much bearing on my actual point.

While on a trip out east, in “Baaahsten” to be exact, we found a bar close to our hotel to make home base. We’d stop in after lunch or to kill time and by the 3rd trip, the regular barkeep couldn’t get over my accent and kept laughing at random things said 🤷🏼‍♀️

The one word that really got him was “squares” as in cigarettes. I never knew “squares” was a Chicago thing?? This got me wondering… what other Chicago/Midwest slang is out there!?!

Include a link if you can.

My first choice would have to be “Taco”. I remember first hearing Lil Flip and his gang using that word excessively during their ZackTv interview in the backyard and now I don’t really see people saying “duck yo taco” or whatever as much as when it first became a lil trend.

The Bay Area is known to be the Mecca for inventing slang terms for the streets but since Chicago got put on heavy in the last 8 or so years everyone all over the world be using words invented by the chi from real street cats to the casual rap fan all the way to news reporters and YouTube/tv personalities.

What words y’all got?

So I was writing my campaign for middle school HOUSE CAPTAIN, the highest honour, and I am trying to be really witty and explanatory. Then I remembered a day when my friends and I were playing at recess and one of them pulled out his phone and started looking us up in the urban dictionary. People had all sorts of descriptions (one friend was described as a guy who deals drugs with his grandma) and it described me like a freaking GOD with like ultimate kindness and as handsome as one too (which is ridiculously accurate (totally not sarcasm)). So I was wondering how the urban dictionary describes other people. I'll check in occasionally to see any responses, but for now, this Kernal has popped!!! Ps. J and Ben your need to trademark some of this stuff quick!!! (Dunno why just seems funny and could probably be a 15-minute topic where you joke about trademarks and the KFC Popcorn-Culture Theft.

Link To My Description: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Elliot&utm_source=search-action

Link to the Drug Dealer Description (sorry if this is your name but I didn't write it): https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=josh

I just read it in a post and I don't know what it is.

I keep seeing this all over twitter and it’s hurting my brain trying to figure out what it means

I’m (29M) a native English speaker living in Argentina. Many of my closest friends are learning English, and I try to help/provide resources whenever I can.

One thing that my friends consistently struggle with is slang and dialect: which slang is appropriate where, with which audience, etc. They also struggle to understand non-standard English (AAVE, etc.) in media.

It seems like Urban Dictionary used to be the go-to for this problem, but - in my view - it has turned into a sort of “joke” website: the most upvoted content is not necessarily the most accurate or comprehensive.

Is there anyone here - learning or teaching English - who relies on Urban Dictionary? How do you use it?

If not, how would you help a non-native to understand English slang and dialect?

I see it after posts all the time. I tried asking someone what it meant one time but they wouldn't answer the question.