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Original poster

Anyone up for helping me crowdsource current teenage slang, please?

38 replies

DoggerelBank · 25/01/2023 18:10

I'm helping Ukrainian secondary school kids with their English, and they want a 101 on the slang their peers are using. Anyone able to contribute some must-know words for survival in a south-east England secondary? Better still, ask your kids?
For example, current teenage words/expressions for:
great
terrible
tired
angry
upset
excited
attractive
disgusting
an idiot (You ...!)
a strange person
a clumsy person
a swot
You did it really well
You did it really badly
Don't interfere
Romantic relationship stuff (swerving anything too 'adult' in content as there'll be some 11 and 12 year olds in the group)
Language related to gossip (Spill the tea ...?? etc)
Or anything else that would be useful to a young person who's mostly learned English from a school coursebook and a host family without kids.
Many thanks for any help you can provide! My own kids are older, so I'm not sure the slang they use is stiil relevant in schools now.

OP posts:
edwinbear · 25/01/2023 21:17

I’m still on very basic level SE London slang so possibly not the best to help. Things I have heard are:

You wot G ?! Seems to translate to what you proposing is frankly absurd. Frequently the response to a suggestion he might like to do his homework/get off the PlayStation/his phone.

Fam - I believe is a term of endearment, see ‘whats up Fam’ as a greeting to his mates.

Cuz - as above.

Blud - also as above.

I can recommend Urban Dictionary online. I use it frequently.

Dominicains · 25/01/2023 21:13

I have lots of drug related slang too but probably not what you want to share with them!

burn - tobacco

Dominicains · 25/01/2023 21:12

Creps - shoes
peas - money
dank - tasty (food)
peak (for you) - bad luck
allow - let someone get away with something
chef up - stab

can you guess where I work?

dontknowwhatisbest · 25/01/2023 21:09

"oh my days" seems popular as well, which I rather like!

dontknowwhatisbest · 25/01/2023 21:08

Agree with aesthetic and slay, hear that a lot from my teens.

Rizz (sp?) seems to mean being attractive to the opposite sex - "he's got rizz"

IwishIwasSupermum · 25/01/2023 21:04

Attractive people/things are ‘leng’, that’s about the only one I’ve picked from DD, maybe the other is ‘sic’ - means great, they like it! Not the most pleasant expression! If I think of anymore I’ll pop them on.

Stokey · 25/01/2023 20:55

Nice things are "aesthetic". When you think two people should be together you "ship" them.
Agree with "slay". Everyone seems to be a "bestie" ....

ArseInTheCoOpWindow · 25/01/2023 20:52

Drip is the word for clothes. As in ‘new drip’ meaning new clothes.

Also ‘slay’ to mean amazing as in ‘Taylor Swift is slaying’ says my 16 yo Dd……. All the bloody time.

Original poster
DoggerelBank · 25/01/2023 20:50

Well, they've most of them been in the UK for 9 months and friendships with local children are super hard. Wouldn't it be lovely if they could just pick slang up seamlessly. Unfortunately that isn't happening. It's more that the native speakers say stuff they don't understand, they ask what it means, and the native speakers laugh at them for not understanding.
@CircleofWillis Organising some teens to come along and help would be lovely, but so much admin involved even if we could find willing volunteers. Not sure I've got the bandwidth at the moment, but definitely worth considering. Thanks for the suggestion.
@Bunnyannesummers Thanks, yes. I'll try braving Tiktok...

OP posts:
NeverDropYourMooncup · 25/01/2023 19:16

They'll blend in seamlessly with the locals with a combo of cunt and fuck off. The rest will come to them as they hear it.

ReamsOfCheese · 25/01/2023 19:06

They'll pick it up from usage in normal conversation as the meanings will become obvious. And from reading books aimed at their age, they tend to have colloquialisms in them. There's no one-size-fits-all answer to this. It literally varies from one school to the next.

CircleofWillis · 25/01/2023 19:05

Why not add some local children to the group who can explain and demonstrate how various terms are learnt.

Bunnyannesummers · 25/01/2023 19:03

It’ll be dependent on your area surely?

tiktok would be a good place for this

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