The BEST British Street Slang

Hello. My name is Jade, yeah? And today, I'm going to tell you about the real London accent.

Yeah? Because that's where I'm from. And, like, we don't talk, like, how you learn it

in your textbooks. You know what I'm saying? We talk like we're from the street. We talk

in a different way. So what I'm telling you today is some words that, like,

people like me speak with.

So we're going to look at this accent. Sometimes, I'm going to speak in my normal accent, but

I'm going to do this accent a lot here because this is what I'm talking about. So this accent,

sometimes, like, those clever people, yeah? They call it "Multicultural London English".

What does that mean? It basically means -- this accent that I'm using, it's not like the cockney

accent. You've probably heard about the cockney accent. And that's supposed to be the accent

that working class people in London speak with. Everyone's supposed to be a cockney.

But the truth is, like, no one -- not that many people talk in a, like, speak that cockney

anymore. 'Cause this accent, Multicultural London English, is, like, a lot more normal

now. People speak like this.

Some people, you know -- some rude people, they're calling it "Jafaican". And they're

calling it "Jafaican" because they're saying that, like, we're trying to sound like from

Jamaica. But I grew up in London. Do you know what I'm saying? I ain't been to Jamaica.

So for some people, what they hear in that accent is, like, "Oh, you're West Indian"

or, "You're trying to sound like you're West Indian even if you're a white person. You're

trying to sound like you're from Jamaica." But actually, it's -- black people have this

accent. White people have this accent. It's just a really common accent in London now.

Who speaks with this accent? Here are some people. Ali G -- actually, he doesn't really

speak with this accent because Ali G is not a real person. Plus, Ali G is a character,

and that stuff is about ten years old now. And maybe when it was even first made, he

doesn't really speak in this accent. It's just an exaggerated version. If you don't

know who Ali G is or any of these other people, you can search for them on YouTube and listen

to them.

These are the people -- they're music people in the UK. We've got Dizee Rascal, Wiley,

and N-Dubz. And if you search for N-Dubz and try to listen to him, you probably won't understand

very much, I'm thinking.

So now, I'm going to introduce you to some of the, like, words that we use when we speak

in English, yeah? So that you know what we saying when you come to London. When you come

to my endz, you can say all the right things, yeah? So let's have a look at some verbs.

In your textbooks, you're told to ask for something. In this accent, you "axe" for something.

"Axe dem blud." That means, "Ask them for something." "Buss" -- to "buss" something

means to wear something. So, "You're bussing sick creps. Do you know what I'm saying?"

"Creps" are trainers or shoes or sneakers. "You're wearing very nice trainers." "You're

bussing sick creps. Do you get me?"

"Cotch" means to relax somewhere. "Come we go cotch." "Let's go relax somewhere."

"Fix up" -- I've got a sad story about this one that's true. When I was in secondary school,

there was this girl in my secondary school, and she was a bully. And I remember I was

cuing up for my lunch, and she just came behind me, hit me on the head, and she's, like, "Go

fix your hair." And I was, like, "What's wrong with my hair? I'm really sorry." And I felt

really bad. So if somebody says "fix up something", it's like, "You're looking really bad." "Nah.

You ain't good, you know?" So in Dizee Rascal's song, which is quite famous, he says,

"Fix up. Look sharp." And that means, like,

"Try and wear something good when you go out into the world." So

moving on from the verbs.

Nouns, essential nouns in this vocabulary. You know the word "house", right? Well, the

other word you can use for it is "yard". "Come to my yard, yeah? I'll meet you later." "Fam",

"blud", and "yout" are all words that could be used for "friend". "Yout" would be, like,

a young friend. "He's just a yout. Leave him. He ain't worth it. Do you know what I mean?

Leave him." "Blud" means "friend", but it comes from, like, "blood brother". It means,

like, really close. If someone's your "blud", they're, like -- they're watching out for

you. "Endz" is your neighbourhood. "Who is that? I ain't seen you round the endz before.

He best watch out." That means,

"Who is that gentleman in the neighbourhood. He better be careful."

So moving on from the nouns, we've got some adjectives. "Haps", "ver haps", to be "ver

haps" means to be very happy. "Sick", if something's "sick", it means -- you probably know that

one because it's not just in this accent. It's also in a lot of American, like, street

kind of language. "Sick" means "good".

"Butterz" -- "You're butterz!" That means you're ugly. What about "hench"? "You want

to be hench, yeah? When you're walking down the street." That means you're strong. You're

a strong man. "Dem hench man, nobody mess with him. Do you know what I'm saying?"

"Safe", "Safe, blud." It's a greeting. Or it means, "That's fine." "Peng", "She a peng

girl." That means, "She's a good-looking woman."

So what about some phrases you can use? You've probably heard me say of all of these phrases

already. "Do you get me?" It means, "Do you understand?" "Come we go. Come we go" "let's

go." "Allow that. Allow that." So imagine someone does something you're not very pleased

about and you want to, like -- you want to get in there and sort this person out. Someone's

saying, "Allow that. Allow that." It means, "Leave it. It's not worth it. Leave it."

What if you're just going about your business and you see someone looking at you that shouldn't

be looking at you. Right? You can say, "Don't watch me. Don't watch me. Turn your head.

Don't watch me." And what about this one? "Wagan. Wagan. Safe." "Wagan" is, "Hi. How

are you?" And a little bit related to "Don't watch me", "Move from me." "Go away. I don't

want you near me." "Move from me."

So what we need now, I think, just to put it all together, is some insults. How can

you insult someone in this accent? First of all, we've got "pussyhole". "You a pussyhole.

Get away." "Pussyhole" means weak, immature, not manly. "You're a pussyhole." "Sket" means

a woman who sleeps with many people. "She's a sket."

"Pattymouth" -- a "patty" is a kind of Jamaican food. And "pattymouth" means -- "pattymout"

means someone who's, like, saying clever stuff all the time or trying to be clever but is

actually just talking nonsense. "You're a pattymouth -- pattymout."

"Wasteman" -- "wasteman" is, like, someone who's just, like, uncool, wrong, loser, something

like that. And "begfriend" is someone who just, is like, coming around you all the time,

trying to be friends, trying a little bit hard to be friends. So you don't want them

around. "Go away. You're a begfriend. I ain't talking to you. Go away."

So there you go. That's the real London accent, yeah? If you come to London and you walk around

the street, this is what you're going to hear. You ain't going to hear no la-di-dah from

the textbook, yeah? It ain't like that. It's this kind of accent. And I grew up in London.

I heard this accent -- always, I'm hearing this accent. But I did my best today. Do you

know what I mean? Because I don't speak like this all the time. I know some of the words.

I shared them words with you today. But what you can do now is you can go to the website.

You can do a quiz on all our slang that you learned today. If you liked my accents, you've

got to give me a "like" for that. If you didn't like my accent, you've got to give me a "like"

for trying. If you liked this video, you've got to subscribe here. Also on my personal

channel because I've got two channels. This channel and my other YouTube channel. And

you know what? I think I'm done, yeah? So I'm going to go. I'm going to bowl out. Don't

watch me. Now, watch me. Next time, yeah? Safe.