So I’ve been living in Barcelona for some time now and made quite a lot of friends here who teach me Spanish and I teach them English or Farsi (I'm British born to two Iranian Parents)
However the one main thing I get constantly asked from anyone not British is what I’m saying when I speak with my slang as I have a bad habit of not being able to turn it off however most have said they want to learn the slang to fit in so here’s a guide to the current slang I and my boys personally use back home.
For reference I am 22 Born in Manchester and studied in London whilst living in Tottenham.
So a lot of slang used to come from Patois which is Jamaican and there being a big amount of Jamaican influence in the U.K. but currently it’s being pushed more towards Arab and Somali slang due to the newer influence on music here specifically U.K. Drill.
To begin, Introductions:
“What you saying?” - Usually day the what and you really fast so comes out as “Saying?” More time which just means how are you but can come across aggressive depending on tone.
“Wagwan” - Pronounced wog1 means what’s going on or again how are you - Jamaican influenced
Sentence Finishers:
“Say Less” - As disrespectful as it sounds it more so means “Sounds good” or Say No More I’ve had a couple people confused when I say this.
”Calm” - Can be used interchangeably with Say Less more time by using it at the end of the sentence.
”Safe” - Just means stay safe usually said when saying bye or spudding (spudding is fist bumping)
For example your friends talking to you:
Them - “Yo I’m going Work I’ll catch you later” You - “Calm” or “Say Less” “Safe”
”Still” - This sentence finisher is a bit different it’s quite hard to explain how we use it as we just use it more as a filler for the end of the sentence. It also depends on how you say the word still by dragging the word or keeping it short you convey different things. 95% Of the time it literally is just added on to the end of a sentence and won't make sense why but it just is there.
Some examples: A: "What you sayin g?"
B: "Calm still"
A: “Where you from?"
B: “Tottenham still"
A: “You see her?"
B: “Yeah she's leng still" or "Yeah she's leng stiiiiil"
Like any other word you can drag the word how you like to show how much you mean the statement you just said if that even makes any sense.
Descriptive words:
“Peng” - Coming from patois > painting > peng ting > peng
Can be used to say beautiful or delicious more time however not as much for taste.
”She’s so Peng” - she’s very attractive
”Your Marjs food always looks peng” - your Mums food looks very good
“Leng” - Pretty much dame as above Leng used to be what a gun was called (Probably 100 different names for a gun here cause of censorship in music) but now pretty much means the same as leng but is used for taste aswell from what I’ve found as in you could say “That food was leng” and it sounds better than using Peng.
”Loud”- Even better term than the two above and used more common now. Loud can mean many things;
”That was Loud”- In regards to food it means that was delicious and you’d use this more so for food than you would peng or leng
”That smells Loud”* - Means the smell is very very strong usually used for Weed which is where the slang got popularised.
”That jacket is Loud” - This means two things depending on your tone. The first in a complimentary means that’s a nice jacket. The second can mean that jacket is too flashy.
”Mental” - Meaning crazy but more so used to describe physical things or experiences
”Schitz” - Coming from schizophrenia is more so used to describe a person instead of mental or crazy you’d call someone Schitz.
”That Nitty is moving bare schitz” - A full sentence of slang let’s break it down.
”Nitty” - Someone usually addicted to drugs, zombified type usually the man on crack or spice.
”Moving” - Moving here doesn’t mean actually moving it means acting so if I’m moving mad it means I’m actin crazy.
”Bare” - This ones very useful it simply means a lot. There’s bare man there - there’s a lot of people there. “You got bare money” etc.
So now when we put it all together it comes out to that Nitty is acting very crazy. Nitty can also be used as an insult as you can imagine.
”Dead” - Self explanatory and easy to use when something isn’t good. “Her attitude is dead still”
Can also be used to mean to end something. “Just dead it” - Just end it/stop it.
”Ting” - You remember peng and how the word became we now have the other half - Ting. Ting is thing with the H removed b it usually means a girl. “I’m linking this ting later” I’m meeting up (linking) with this girl later usually used for a girl you just want to have sex with you wouldn’t call your girlfriend a ting.
”Wet” - Used to describe someone or something as Soft. can be interchanged with moist).
For example “Why is he so wet” - Why is he such a bitch/pussy/gay it’s hard to describe this but context is necessary.
Another use would be: “I’m not doing that it’s wet” Imagine you’re at salt bae and the donny (Donny just means person) is trying to put the meat on your mouth you’d use that sentence.
Another use of Wet (which you can’t use moist for) is to “Wet someone up” and this usually comes from Drill and means to stab someone up.
”Dry” - Usually used when something is lacking. “Her attitude is Dry” can be used similar to “Dead” but has other meanings, usually used negatively about something calling someone dry something dry etc.
Insults:
Now surprisingly there isn’t many insults in slang that I can think of off the top of my head.
”Pussyole” - A favourite for many just means pussyhole but you don’t mention the h - common insult and usually with a very enunciated P
”Clapped” - Basically just means retarded. “Your dad is clapped fam”
”Tapped” - not really an insult more so means mentally ill more time. “Look at the news He killed his family he’s so tapped”
”Batty” - A classic that’s still around just means Ass however when describing someone it means they’re gay. It has other uses to which will be written further below.
”Wet” - See above, basically calling someone a pussy.
Now for this section I guess it’s just slang that I use often and is used often but I didn’t know where to categorise it.
”Man” - This is used all the time it can mean a lot. Firstly it can mean yourself as in “A Man doesn’t know bro” if someone asking you something you can say that. However the exact same sentence can be used for someone else. Imagine there’s you and two mates and ones asking the other something and they don’t know it but feel pressured you’d say the exact same sentence for them.
Man can also mean a group of people. “Them man there are moving mad” - you can work that one out from everything above.
It can also be used for women which can get confusing I was speaking to two girls the other day and asked them “What you man doin after this anyway” and they got confused asking why I’m calling them men but you get the gist - very interchangeable.
”Akhi” - Arabic word for brother used a lot now just means bro or friend used to describe your boys.
”Wallahi” - Means swear to god in Arabic. Used by us Muslims to mean I’m telling the truth and a lot of us take this very serious a lot will be Mickey Mouse with it. Neither of the above two are slang but used a lot.
”Mickey Mouse” - Its a mess or a bad job or taking the piss. For example “That’s some Mickey Mouse work” means that’s some really bad work as if they’ve taken the piss.
*”More time”” - you’ve seen me use this in the thread it just means most of the time can be used start or end of a sentence. “More time he’s just angry like that” or “he’s just angry like that more time” this is used quite a lot.
”Yute” - Means youth but used more time to say people “Them yutes looking at you weird” those man are looking at you weird.
"Bun" - Can be used to mean "Fuck" but not sexually. For example "Bun that guy he's a wasteman" > Fuck that guy he's an idiot. Can also be used to mean smoke or to do something > "Bun that i'm not going to school"/"Let's go and bun a zoot" > Second mean lets go home and smoke a joint.
”Allow her/him/it” - To allow something means to stop it or to let it go depending on context.
For example “Allow him bro” means let him speak let him continue depending on tone but same thing can mean who cares about him. Same can be used for objects.
”Pree” - To check out something to look at something. “Pree the grey ting with the fat back” means look at that white girl with that nice ass
”Leng/Peng/Food” We saw these before so why again with the addition of food? This means drugs depending the context. - “You wanna buy some food/leng/Peng bro? Each word means the same but in that context the persons asking if you wanna buy any drugs.
”Batty/Back/Bunda” - This all means ass. Specifically used for a girls ass and yes i know nobody likes to be objectified but this slang is used a lot and not to be confused with the Batty from before.
Saying someone’s got back or Bunda means they got ass.
”Slap it” - Now ofcourse I had to write this after talking about back except it doesn’t mean what it says at all.
To slap something means to do it or to put it on.
You at the takeaway and bossman speaking to you:
“You want some garlic mayo with that?”
“Yea slap it on Boss”
Can also mean to throw something or to shoot.
“Slap my phone” - Throw me my phone
“Slap Corn” - Shoot bullets (Corn being bullets)
There’s so much more slang that I can’t even write down here as my thumbs are sore from writing this on my phone.
If you’d like to see more then I’ll gladly write more as I do love showing people the slang as there’s so much you’ll never learn otherwise.
There’s much more slang aswell and due to censorship in music for example when it comes to the word “Gun” we have a hundred names.
“Spinner/Wap/44/Dots/Dotty/Dog (having it bark)/Collector (Body Collector - not used much)/Skeng/Leng” etc etc
If there’s any slang you should 100% take from today it’s these.
Man/Bare/Leng & Peng/Wet & Dry/Say less & Calm.
If you can recognise this you can pick up a lot more especially in U.K. music.
It was fun making this post and looking forward to your feedback there’s a lot more slang to post in general terms but there’s also a lot of music slang for Music such as Drill. If you listened to a drill song and you’re not from the U.K. chances are you’ll miss 90% of what’s said and I would be happy to effectively translate these songs.
Just don't go about using this slang every other sentence because you're gonna end up looking like an idiot most people in the UK do so already and they're native it's more so you can understand how people speak and if you do end up ingraining the slang naturally then even better.
Sorry for all the waffle (unnecessary talk) but I ended up doing this on my phone and I keep scrolling up and down so much half the words here stopped making sense to me 10 mins ago.
Thank you and looking forward to your comments and any questions.