10 Essential Slang Words That Impress Native English Speakers

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

first and number one English Fluency

Guide and it is a pleasure to welcome

you to another video here on YouTube

today we are going to talk about slang

this is such a big part of the English

language and it's a thing that I often

receive questions about because people

have maybe trouble understanding slang

and also using it in their conversations

so first of all just a thing about the

English language in general slang is a

really important part of English and

it's such an important part of the

language for you to study because even

in business situations so situations

where you might not think casual

language would be used slang is often

used a lot and so we do have situations

in English which is maybe something

different from a language like Japanese

so this is the other language I speak

fluently so in a business situation you

wouldn't really be using slang but in a

business situation in English people do

speak more casually and friendly again

it's just the different ways that the

language is structured or how people

speak but in general English English is

a bit more casual language especially

even when you're speaking in business

situations so because it's such an

important thing I wanted to talk about

slang in this video now there are

actually a lot of topics about slang

specific ways of using it or when you

should use it but I wanted to be very

specific to give maybe a broad overview

of slang and just help you understand 10

slang words there of a specific kind of

slang again there's so many different

things about slang to learn and this is

why we teach hundreds of these different

words in programs like master English

conversation and the fluency course

which you can learn more about it

English anyone calm but just for this

video again I want to give an overview

of slang so you understand just one

piece of this and really why people are

using slang in the first place now this

is probably true for your language as

well as it is for English but there are

really basically two reasons why people

use slang the first one is because it

saves time often people will be just

using slang in conversations because the

other person understands what they're

saying and they don't use the whole you

know the whole word because they don't

have to say

so the word hippopotamus or the word

rhinoceros for example these are both

words where we can shorten them because

people understand what we're talking

about so if we point and say oh look at

that hippopotamus over there people

don't typically say that they say look

at that hippo or look at that Rhino in

the case of a rhinoceros anyways again

the first reason why we're doing this is

because we're shortening the language

because we want to communicate more more

fluently and faster because people

already understand what we're saying if

we're just cutting any word down then

people might not understand what we're

saying but we have the the slang

developed as a kind of sub language so a

subset of the language within a language

like English where we can use that

because again it's faster to say now the

other and maybe reason that we don't

really talk about but this is kind of

the the more important reason why we use

slang is because when we use it

it connects us with other people within

a certain group now to me you would

typically have the the main English

language like what you would see on CNN

or other business news programs this is

the way people are trained to speak so

almost everyone that speaks English or

understands English can understand what

they're saying but slang becomes part of

a subgroup of each of these kind of the

each of these smaller groups within the

larger group of English speakers so you

might have some subgroup within a town

or at a university or you know a sports

team or something like that but people

create their own language their own

words their own ways of speaking so that

they connect with each other and this is

just something we do as people where we

have that inside group outside group

connection so we know who's included in

this club and who is not so if you know

the language that native speakers are

using or within that particular group

like again you don't have to think about

you know everybody but really especially

if you are living in a english-speaking

country or in an english-speaking

country you know like America needs so

in the United States or the United

Kingdom or Australia any of these places

will have smaller subgroups so your

community you might have a particular

word or phrase for you know an object

like like a dessert or even like a

something like a soft drink like

coca-cola so it might be a coke in one

place or a pop in another or a soda in

another place and so these again are

just different words that if you can use

them you'd become part of that group and

so for these two reasons it's really

important for you to use slang so one of

the first things I want to talk about or

it gets kind of the main thing I'd like

to talk about in this video is just to

really give you some explanations and go

over some some specific slang words so

we'll go over ten of these slang words

for just one category of slang and this

is where we take a word that's commonly

used and we shorten it so there are

again as I just mentioned these kind of

small areas just like you would probably

have within your own town or maybe your

own school or your own even group of

friends you have your own words and

phrases that you use it nobody else

understands and that makes you a

stronger group but these ten things that

we'll cover today are used by pretty

much every native speaker so they are

the general slang things that anybody

would probably understand so let's get

into these the first one is legit legit

and this is the shortened version of

legitimate legitimate so legitimate just

means real or correct or true and you

can see it's a longer word legitimate

legitimate but we're using this when we

just want to speak it in a casual and

conversational way we just say legit

legit

there was an old MC Hammer song back in

the 90s I believe called too legit to

quit so he's like a really cool guy and

it's like the proper or correct way of

doing something so you can say that

someone has a legitimate concern about

something that just means they have a

real question or it's a true question or

like this is something we should really

look at but in a casual conversational

way and even in a business setting you

can talk about something being legit so

I don't really think this is a legit way

of doing something like if you're not

following the rules it's not legit legit

the next one is fridge fridge and this

is short for refrigerator refrigerator

so everyone has this in their home a

refrigerator or also known as the icebox

so this is the old term for it where

people actually had a block of ice

delivered to their home maybe people do

that in some places still but typically

people have a regular refrigerator but

most people just casually and

conversationally refer to it as the

fridge so can you get me something from

the fridge open the fridge and grab me a

beer fridge fridge the next one is props

props and this is a kind of tricky one

that most people they do use it but they

don't really understand what it comes

from and this is well I guess the best

way to say it is like you get the proper

respect or the proper maybe

recommendation or recognition that kind

of thing

so proper respect or proper recognition

just this is really just a way of

describing ok you like did something

well we're going to give you props so

we're going to give you recognition for

doing that but instead of saying

something longer like proper recognition

we just say I'm going to give you props

for that so you can give someone props

for doing something doing something

that's really a good job problems props

the next one is ammo ammo so when you

have ammo this is short for ammunition

and you can describe the physical ammo

that you might have for maybe a gun

something like that so ammo is just

talking about the bullets but it can

also mean any any kind of resource you

have when you're going into war or if

there's like a business disagreement or

you're having a debate with someone so

as an example if you're having a debate

with someone the ammo you have is all of

the different arguments that you might

use in that debate so if you have no

arguments then you have no ammo to using

that in that debate or that discussion

ammo ammo the next one another great

business term is perks you'll hear this

a lot when people are talking about

applying for jobs or if they are

offering jobs and job applicants will

say oh what are the perks of the job or

my job has really great perks now this

is short for the word perquisite

perquisite perk was it but people will

very rarely use the word perk was it in

fact if you ask people what perks is

short for they probably won't even be

able to tell you because perk was it is

just a longer and harder word to say but

really you don't need to use it because

perks is much easier and faster but it

just means some kind of benefit or

ward so I really love the perks of my

job because I can stand here and record

these videos without having to go

anywhere special I don't have to put on

a suit or tie that's one of the perks of

my job

next is ABS so we'll talk about ABS and

ABS is one of those things because just

like any of your other body parts and

abs is your stomach muscles what people

often referred to as a 6-pack if you've

got that it looks like a 6-pack of

drinks but if you talk about the

different muscle groups they typically

come from Latin these are longer words

like your butt muscles these are your

glutes or your gluteus maximus muscles

and again that's really long when people

are at the gym they don't want to talk

about well I am exercising my gluteus

maximus muscles you just say I'm working

on my butt or whatever so the same thing

for your abs I believe these are called

your abdominal abductors or something

but at least you're just abdominal is

that middle section in your body where

your belly is so your abs is just a

short way of doing that so this becomes

the shortened version for saying that in

a much more casual and conversational

way next hood hood the hood is short for

the word neighborhoods you can say well

in my hood we do this and this is again

something that you can use in a casual

conversation like I like when I was down

in the hood you know just while I'm you

know going out and shopping or something

like that but this is again typically

something this word specifically

wouldn't be something you would use in a

business situation I mean you could use

it casually with maybe some colleagues

if you're speaking with them at business

but it's maybe if you want to talk about

locations or areas in a business

situation where you can see how use the

word hood when you're talking about

things in a casual way hood

next is vibe vibe now when you want to

talk about the vibe of something this is

the feeling of it and this is short for

the word vibration so if you want to

talk about the atmosphere of a room wow

this this party really has some great

vibes I'm enjoying the vibe of this

concert so you can talk about vibe or

vibes it doesn't really matter but again

it's just talking about the general

atmosphere of a particular place the

vibe so how

the vibe at school how's the vibe with

the meeting so any kind of situation

we're talking about what's the general

mood or atmosphere of that thing vibe

vibe next is spec spec spec is short for

specification specification so again

this is one of those longer words that

especially even in business terms if

you're working in a factory or you

devise maybe some kind of software or

even just any kind of hardware or other

technology like a machine you can say

what are the specs of this thing as

opposed to the specifications or you can

say this this machine is built within

some kind of specification or some kind

of spec so again it's just a way of

expressing this longer thing that most

people understand in a shorter way spec

spec and the final one is wizz wizz now

a wizz is someone just like a wizard

which is what this is short for and you

can spell this as wi z or whi z but it

just refers to someone's very someone

who is very smart so uh this person is

he's great with computers he is a

computer whiz or he's a whiz with

numbers so this is a really smart person

or if someone that understands math very

well a whiz well that's all of these and

again this is just one part of slang

there are different things about it but

really this is why we use slang so again

the reason to study slang the reason

it's such an important thing and why we

teach it and teach so many slang words

and expressions in the phrasal in the

fluency course and master English

conversation is because again it's used

in casual and professional situations so

this is something you really should

practice and you can probably find lots

of videos right here on YouTube that

help you understand lots of slang

expressions as well anyway if you have

enjoyed this video and you'd like to

learn more about this if you have any

questions about slang specifically or

other things may be related to this do

let us know in the comment section down

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finally the last and most important

piece is if you'd like to learn more

things like slang

and understand vocabulary especially

things like phrasal verbs and idioms

these are all conversational vocabulary

in addition to slang that are really

important for both casual and

professional situations if you'd like to

learn more about these click on the link

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conversational English quickly well

that's it for this video and I look

forward to seeing you in the next one

bye bye