Slang Words: What are young people saying these days in your country?

[linguaholic]

I would like to talk about slang words in your country here. In every country, there must be some special slang words or some sort of vocabulary that is commonly used amongst young people. Let me start this thread by telling you about some very common (slang) words that young people use in Switzerland.

There is a word called "huärä", which literally means "prostitute" or "whore". However, this word is very regularly used by young people in Switzerland to mean "very, extremely". Is is therefore used as an adverb. I can give you some examples:

"huarä schön"    means very beautiful

"huarä guet"      means very good

"huarä wit wäg"  means "so far away"

Another thing young Swiss people use all the time (me included when I was younger haha) is a word called "mann". Generally speaking, mann (in capital letters though) stands for "Man" in English. However, young people use this here at the end of almost every sentence. Whatever you say, you can basically put mann at the end. It is just considered to be cool to speak like this but "mann" has no meaning at all when used like this. A lot of young foreigners like to use this as well here in Switzerland. Moreover I would say that it is most prominent with young people that like "Hip Hop Music:=)", but many others use it very regularly as well.

I'm curious to hear about (YOUR) slang words in your country, (mann)  :wacky:

[Jellyfish]

Oh, someone from Switzerland. I was living there for some time so I know that they say it huarä often there.

I actually don't know much of the slang words of today's German youth but as far as I can tell it I would say there are a lot of words and phrases translated from the English parts of the internet into German. F.e:: "This moment when.." into "Dieser Moment, wenn..".

Something else would be ".. not" at the end of a sentence into ".. nicht" at the end of a sentence which doesn't really make sense in German.. nicht.

[pcgamer]

I will cite some Hindi slangs we use when we hang out with our friends.

1.) Iski to fat gai - He/she is a puss*.

2.) oo teri - It's used when something unbelievable happens.

3.) bhai mere - Use to address someone who is very dear to you (only males).

[BWL]

There's a very interesting phenomenon in Malay slang especially among the young. Malay, like Japanese and Korean has several words for basic pronouns like I, you, he, she and they. These pronouns change to show politeness.

There is a trend to replace the "I" and "you" pronouns with English ones!!!

So young people say things like "You pergi mana?", "Where are you going?".

Or "I tak suka", meaning "I don't like it", !

Or even "I sayang you" , meaning "I love you"!

Some people attribute this to laziness as the speaker does not have to select which pronoun to use and just substitute everything with the uniform "I" and "you".

[Jellyfish]

I will cite some Hindi slangs we use when we hang out with our friends.

1.) Iski to fat gai - He/she is a puss*.

2.) oo teri - It's used when something unbelievable happens.

3.) bhai mere - Use to address someone who is very dear to you (only males).

How do you pronounce "oo teri"? There are unbelievable things happening to me all the time and I want people around me to know it. If they don't care I can go with Iski to fat gai.

[deyvion]

The Swedish language has become a bit infected by the English language recently, and many words normally used by young people are English words where Swedish grammar has been added to it.

For example:

I facet = I (in) 'Face' + 'et' (the face) = In the face. Face in Swedish is 'ansikte', so the real Swedish would be = i ansiktet.

Another common Swenglish phrase used by the Swedish youth is 'Fucka ur'. This basicly means to go crazy. The base word is the English 'fuck' (excuse my language), and the grammatical suffix '-a' has been added.

This is probably due to the daily encounters of English we have in Sweden. Most young people can speak English and interact daily with other people in English. I also use Swenglish when I talk to my friends, and the sad thing about English taking over so much (I even wrote an essay on this issue at the university) is that sometimes why the English word is used, is because we are losing the vocabulary of our native language. If you are in a conversation with a friend, speaking Swedish, and you forget a word, you will use the English word because you know the other one will know it. Instead of recalling the Swedish word, we get lazy and change over to English.

[Gregor]

A lot of people seem to want to distance themselves from mainstream life by using slang. Slang becomes part if the culture then has to be rebelled against too. It's a useful linguistic device for society to have even if a bit tedious.

[Topcho]

One of the mosy curious examples from my country is the word we use for women that use too much make up, don't act or dress (you know what I mean) accordingly the situation, with nasty, stupid, slutti behaviour. Here you'r call such girl KIFLA, which actually means small pastry, usually filled with chocolate or jam. Sounds pretty cute, right? Actually, the diminutive form of the word - KIFLICHKA, can still be used with kindness and warm feeling. So they say to be careful not to turn from kiflichka to kifla.

P.S. I actually love eating these. Especially with sugar on top, and some raisins added inside.

[linguaholic]

That story about KIFLA and KIFLICHKA is interesting, Topcho!

If you come to Switzerland one day,  I might "cook" some KIFLA for you :=)

[sayitwell]

A lot of the slang words in the United States are derived from pop and hip hop music.  "Swag" is one of the more popular words amongst the youth.  It means confidence in one's self.

Kids are also saying "for real" all the time.  I hear a lot of "f'real" as an abbreviation of the phrase.  The phrase "PAWG" is also gaining steam.  It is sort of a demeaning phrase as it means "phat ass white girl".  Yeah, I didn't make it up so don't shoot me!

[altrouge]

Well this has been used for a long time now, but it's always "fit" when referring to someone that's "hot" here. Also, "pretty" and "beautiful" are less used, and instead you'd always see the young ones use "stunning". Then there's "any craic" or "what's the craic" that has been there for a long time now as well and are used both by both teens and the older ones. It just means "what's up" or something along the lines.

[linguaholic]

"Swag" is even getting popular here in Switzerland amongst young people and kids listening mainly to Hip Hop music :=)

Another things teenagers like to use here (swiss youth and especially the foreigners) is "Ig schwöre". It means "I swear" in English. So they start all kind of sentences with "I swear": Some Examples:

"I swear, the party yesterday was crazy."

"I swear, my brother is much better than yours in playing table tennis".

Honestly, the "I swear" thing often does not make sense at all:=) They just randomly use it for everything =)

[justusforus]

I agree that some slang in the US comes from music or pop culture but some I have no idea how they have spread so fast.

"Sick" does not mean ill health when used in slang.  I have a classic car and the young valet who parked it said "this is really sick". I told him I knew that meant "cool" (dating myself) and that it was a compliment.  He just smiled.

"Seriously?"  may not be slang but it is used often times not to ask if the person is serious or meant what they said or did but more so like a "I can't believe you just...(fill in the blank)"  An example would be a little child runs through the house and knocks over a vase.  "Seriously?" is a reaction that I have heard from young and now quite a few older (parents I noticed) use it too.

[BWL]

I will cite some Hindi slangs we use when we hang out with our friends.

1.) Iski to fat gai - He/she is a puss*.

2.) oo teri - It's used when something unbelievable happens.

3.) bhai mere - Use to address someone who is very dear to you (only males).

Isn't "fat gai" the proper Hindi word for "torn"? As in "Aap ki patloon fat gayi hai"? "Your pants are torn?"

Please correct me if I'm wrong as I am more familiar with shuddh Hindi and proper Urdu than cool street slang! 

[thekernel]

"Sick" and "ill" are words frequently used to describe things that are awesome or cool.

"Hoser" and "jag-off" are two Canadian pieces of slang that are used to describe unfavorable people.

[SpiralArchitect]

Isn't "fat gai" the proper Hindi word for "torn"? As in "Aap ki patloon fat gayi hai"? "Your pants are torn?"

Please correct me if I'm wrong as I am more familiar with shuddh Hindi and proper Urdu than cool street slang! 

True. The usage mentioned isn't one that would be applicable in respectable surroundings. The tearing in fat gai is in reference to a certain part of the human anatomy. Make the connection and you'll know why it refers to someone being turned into a pu***.  :punk:

[mareebaybay]

There are so many slang words that are used in my country. I mean there are at least 50 slang words that I could think of off the top of my head. I won't type them all out but one is "brah". Which is a way of saying aye you.

[Miya]

Since last year, people around me have been saying YOLO (You only live once) a lot. Is this an American thing or do people from other countries use it as well?

[xlzqwerty1]

It's not just an american thing. It's spread to their neighbours, us Canadians. I tend to refrain from using slang (don't know why, but I just like to talk properly). Aside from me, almost everyone else in school uses "YOLO" at one point during the day, I'm pretty sure.

[Trellum]

In my country young people like to use slang words a lot, the most popular words are:

Guey - Something like ''dude''.

Pendejo - idiot

Que padre! - Cool!

Codo - stingy

Sale - OK

Orale - Ok, but can also be used when you hear something that surprises you.

Lana - Cash

There are more, but I left some out because they're kinda vulgar 

[Hardison]

A lot of the slang words in the United States are derived from pop and hip hop music.  "Swag" is one of the more popular words amongst the youth.  It means confidence in one's self.

Kids are also saying "for real" all the time.  I hear a lot of "f'real" as an abbreviation of the phrase.  The phrase "PAWG" is also gaining steam.  It is sort of a demeaning phrase as it means "phat ass white girl".  Yeah, I didn't make it up so don't shoot me!

Swag is very popular. I am very tired of it. I can't wait for it to die out.

YOLO is also popular, but it seems to be dying out. It means "you only live once."

I haven't heard "PAWG", but I don't think it's a demeaning phrase. "Phat" mean "pretty hot and tempting (or tasty)" so when someone calls you phat it's definitely a compliment.

My nephews say "ratchet" a lot. I have no idea what it means. I do know it's not a good thing.

[Miya]

Since last year, people around me have been saying YOLO (You only live once) a lot. Is this an American thing or do people from other countries use it as well?

So it's been a little less than a month since I've made this post. But apparently things have changed in America already and a new slang word similar to YOLO has emerged, lol. The new word is "YOYO" which means "You're on your own".

Cute, eh?

[leahcim132]

Well... living in Canada, I can safely say (not all the time) eh after each sentence... eh.

[jodiann12]

There are several slang words that we use here in Jamaica, and some of them are influenced by the popular songs or television program of the time. Here there are:

1. "Slap weh"  --  This means that something is very good, and this slang came about as a result of a television program.

2. "Di ting tun up"-- This also has the same meaning as the slang above, and it was influenced by a popular song here.

3. "Dem shell it"-- This is Jamaican patois which means that a group of individuals did something very well, for example in a performance, etc.

[pandandesign]

A lot of people seem to want to distance themselves from mainstream life by using slang. Slang becomes part if the culture then has to be rebelled against too. It's a useful linguistic device for society to have even if a bit tedious.

It's true! I live in the United States, and it's considered a Slangy country because there are a lot of people use Slang words. I sometimes use Slang words, but only when I talk to my friends because it's part of our way of communication. I don't use Slang words with other people because I want to be professional. It's really sad that Slang words are well-used in the United States.