English Slang Expressions: “Yo, What Up Cuz?”
Is your English dry and boring? When you speak does it sound like you are just reading our of an English text book?
Using slang and colloquial language is going to make your English much more diverse and even a little more interesting. In this video you are going to learn a few common slang expressions used in American rap and street culture.
Please help out your “homies” by writing any other cool expressions I may have missed in the video. Remember, you can read along with the transcript below.
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Transcript
What up homies? This is Chad from RealLife TV and I was just here, chillin in my crib and I thought Yo, I should make an episode of RealLife TV explaining some awesome slang expressions. Aww yeah!!
Alright guys, so in this episode I’m going to teach you some expressions that are, obviously they are slang expressions and pretty much all of them are American slang expressions. So most of these expressions I think probably came from African American culture and maybe some southern American culture, and it’s kind of strange because I’m Australian and I’m explaining this, but these kind of expressions are really prevalent around the world obviously through media and things like that, so here we go.
Aint
The first expression you are going to hear a lot is aint, aint. So aint is like, “Yo I aint going to go there.” And aint is another way of using the verb to be. I am not, he is not she is not, we are not, and this is a way of saying that but aint is used for everyone. I aint, you aint, he aint she aint, we aint, they aint, everyone aint in this case. So when you want to say I am not he is not you can say I aint. I anit going to go there I aint going to watch that movie, I aint going to wash my clothes, I aint going to go to the party he aint going to go, she aint going to go.
Aight
Aight means alright. Alright so you can use this if someone asks “hey how are you today?” “Yo, I’m aight, everything’s aight.” Everything is alright. And you can also use this at the end of a phrase. Someone might say, yo man I’m going to go and hang out at the park, aight? So that means, you’re asking like, is that alright if I go down there? Is that aight? Everything aight? I’m going to go there aight? Yo how’s your mom, is she aight? Is she alright?
Holla
I’m going to give you a holla. Holla comes from the word holler spelled H-O-L-L-E-R but everybody writes it H-O-L-L-A. I’m going to give you a holla, if you need anything just holla. Holla pretty much means to yell, I mean originally the word is to yell to holler. Nowadays we holla to say that you are going to ring someone, I’ll give you a holla, maybe it’s even a message, or if you need anything just holla, just give me a holla. Give me, gimme, a holla. Yo, if you need anything, jus gimme a holla.
Chillin
Chillin! Like I said at the start of the video I’m just chillin at my crib. Chillin is a way to say relaxing. Yo, what are you doing tonight? Just chillin at my crib.
Crib
Crib is another way to say my house, my home. The original use of crib is actually a baby’s crib, where a baby sleeps is called a crib.
Cruisin
Yo, I’m just cruisin here today guys, cruisin. Cruisin just means that everything is relaxed, everything is fine. Maybe you are having a very easy day you are just cruising. You are going to hear people use this a lot when they’re walking around the street, maybe they’re driving in their car, cruisin the streets of L.A. I think I’ve heard that in some rap song before. Yo I’m jus cruisin the streets of L.A. means you are just driving around in a car going around to different places, nowhere in particular. Just cruising Yo!
Fo Real
Fo real, know what I’m saying? For real is often pronounced FO-REAL. Yo, fo real? This means that you are asking if that person is serious, is what you said real, Yo fo real man? Fo real? That shit is fo real.
Wat Up
I know you all know the famous expressions what’s up, sometimes wazup, with a zzz sound, but now you are going to hear a lot of people saying like wat up, wat(d) up. Yo wat up, wat up dawg? Wat up dawg? wat up cuz?
Dawg
These are all other friendly names you can call your slang using friends. You can say dawg, not dog but dawg and you add a little twang it’s like dawg, wazzup dawg? Wat up dawg, wat up dawg? Sorry for my bad American accent by the way guys. Again dawg is actually a positive thing, it’s a sign of endearment for your friends, if I call you dawg, you’re my dawg, you’re my homie.
Homie
Homie is what I used at the start of this video I said, Yo wat up homies? A homie again is a friend, I don’t know where these words come from, I just hear them a lot and I don’t know why we say them but you’re going to hear it all the time.
Cuz
Cuz, yow at up cuz, gimme a rolla cuz. Cuz is short for cousin, again it’s not actually your cousin it’s generally just your friend.
G
G, wat up G? Yo G fo real? G is short for gangster, again I can use that for my friends, the person doesn’t really have to be a gangster. You can use this amongst friends, yow at up G?
Fo Sho
Another one that is similar to fo real, F O fo real, we can also say fo sho, it’s like F-O S-H-O, fo sho, Yo fo sho. It’s like for sure, hey do you want to go to the party tomorrow? For sure, or fo sho. Know what I’m saying?
Know What I’m Sayin?
Do you know what I am saying is when you are asking for confirmation if that person is understanding your words. So you are going to hear people saying it really quickly, know-im-saying, know-im-saying, hey, know-im-saying. You’re going to hear people saying this all the time on American TV especially.
Bounce
And the last expression I’m going to teach you guys is to bounce, because right now I’m going to bounce. Bounce means to, you know bounce a basketball, but in this case it means that you are going to leave, Yo man Im going to bounce. know-im-saying?
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Aight Gs, I’m going to bounce right now, but just so you know, this vocabulary, these slang expressions are used today. They are not used in everyday English they come from a specific cultural group, I mean you can use these whenever you want but just know when to use them, what they mean and you know, have fun with them. Like I said I’m from Australia, I don’t really use these expressions in a serious way, but I can use them in many cases joking around with my friends and having fun with the language.
So thanks a lot for joining me today guys, don’t forget to subscribe to RealLife TV up in the corner there, and if you guys have any ideas for another video something you guys really want to learn and want me to make a video about. Please just write a comment below and, you know, even if you have any questions about today’s video, again just ask the question in the comments below and I’ll try to answer you as soon as possible, aww yeah!!
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Yooo, that was some dope ass shit, I love it cuz