#25- 25 Popular American Slang Words from NYC

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Have you ever watched an American TV Show, movie or other form of media and not understood what was being said? Even though you learned English in a classroom or academic setting, there are many words you miss when you hear Americans speak. The reason is because most native English speakers use slang, idioms and phrasal verbs in their normal daily English. In the podcast episode, I'll be helping you learn REAL American English by teaching you 25 popular and super cool American slang words that originated in NYC! After this episode, you'll be able to understand American media better AND speak more confidently with Americans. Enjoy the episode!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] On today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 25 popular American slang words that came from New York City. You'll learn words like lit, kicks, mad crazy, trippin', buggin', legit, and more. Let's get to it.

Hey there, welcome to the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby, your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations. Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hey, what's up? How you doing? As we say in New York City. Welcome to episode number 25. I'm so excited to hit episode number [00:01:00] 25. Welcome. Today is another New York City episode. Last week I taught you about life in New York City, and this week, it's all about the slang. This is a slang special. Normally it's slang, phrasal verbs, idioms, and expressions. But today it's all about slang. I'm really excited for this one because I get to teach you some awesome popular slang.

Just be warned. My New York accent might come out a lot in this episode. The New York accent is one of the most iconic and recognizable accents in the USA. Everywhere we travel within the States, we say the States. Our accent is typically recognized. We're also made fun of by other [00:02:00] regions of the United States. Here are some words that will tell you if someone is a New Yorker. Let's start with the word water. Okay. Now, if you know British people, they say, Walter. Or water, depending on where they're from. Americans typically say water, and this is how I say water most of the time. But if I were saying water with my New York accent, I would say wudda. You want some wudda? Also, spider. Oh, my God. I saw a spider. So, when we say OMG, Oh my God, Oh my gosh, we tend to say God, oh my God. That's a New York accent. I never spoke like that, thankfully, but oh my God. And okay, now we have the word chocolate. So, by the way, it's chocolate. Not, chucko [00:03:00] late. Okay, chocolate. Um, but a lot of New Yorkers say chawclate. I love chawclate. Oh my God. You like my New York accent?

One of the words that we get made fun of the most for is how we say coffee. So most people say coffee. New Yorkers say cawfee. You want some cawfee? And we also say tawk. So, I was tawking to, huh? So, this is really making me laugh, laugh instead of laugh. Oh, my God, it was making me laugh when I was tawking to her. There you have it, the New York accent. Now if you've watched different TV shows that are set in New York City, which we'll talk more about later, you have definitely heard this accent.

If you've seen Friends, Joey Tribbiani definitely has a New York accent. Some of his family members, some of his girlfriends, like one of the characters named Janice, they have [00:04:00] big New York accents.

So let me explain some of the accents. When my students say, oh my gosh, Gabby, my pronunciation is so bad. I have an accent. I always tell my students, Hey, look, everybody has an accent. Even in your language, everybody has an accent. You have a standard accent, Southern accent, Northern accent. Everybody has an accent. But the type of New York accent that you have depends on what neighborhood, what borough you grew up in. It also depends on what country your family's from, like your ethnicity. So if you're Italian American, like Joey Tribbiani from Friends, you're going to say, forget about it instead of forget about it. How you doin'? How you doin'?

Areas that have Latinos or black Americans also have different accents. A really great video to watch is with two American actresses slash singers. J.Lo, the one and only Jennifer Lopez, and Leah Remini. She's also an actress, [00:05:00] mostly in TV. They had an episode with James Corden from, I believe it was The Late Show, and he's asking them to talk about their different New York accents. And I'm going to link the video in the show notes because the video is awesome and it's so funny because it talks about the different New York City accents. For me, I've noticed that my New York accent comes out when I'm around other native New Yorkers, like my high school friends, junior high school friends, college friends. However, since I'm a teacher, I try to have a very neutral accent and I try to have good pronunciation. So my New York accent is barely heard now. So even though my New York accent has pretty much disappeared since I became a teacher, my New York City behaviors will never go away. New Yorkers are very honest and to the point. We're [00:06:00] tough. Someone pushes us, we push back. Someone asks us for an honest opinion, we happily give an opinion.

However, we are very friendly to tourists, most of the time, unless you violate New York City etiquette or proper behavior. For example, we always walk on the right side. You never stop in the middle of the street to take a picture. Make sure you let people leave the train or the elevator before you try to go in. When you're standing in line to order food, don't wait until you get to the front to decide, make sure when you get there, you know what you want. People in the United States, other Americans, they say we're aggressive. And I think we are aggressive, but it's more like we defend people who need defending. We will always help anyone who's lost. So when you come to New York City in the future, if you ever get lost, just [00:07:00] say, excuse me, can you tell me where the Met is, for example, and someone will help you. But, like I said, we're tough. If you've ever seen the original Spider-Man movie from the 2000s with Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, there's a scene where the villain, the Green Goblin, is trying to hurt a bunch of people. And like all these New Yorkers on the bridge, they start throwing garbage at him. And they're like, we're from New York. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And everyone in the theater is like, yeah, that's right. And that kind of sums up New Yorkers. We're very tough. We do mind our business. We see people doing strange things. We don't care, like I mentioned in the previous episode. But we will defend people who need defending. You fight us, we'll fight back.

[00:08:00] So do not be afraid to talk to New Yorkers about where you're going or if you're lost. We will help you.

Okay, let's talk about the words that I'm teaching you in this episode. Firstly, New York City is the coolest place in the United States. All right, let's just put that out there right now. There's no question. We're cooler than LA, we're cooler than Chicago, we're way cooler than Miami and all the other cities. Okay, yes, New Yorkers, we think we're the best. We have so many famous people from New York City, and so a lot of slang, phrasal verbs, and idioms originate here. Especially with rap music, hip-hop, pop [00:09:00] music, a lot of words originate here. Language that is created here in New York City usually becomes popular very quickly. These words can be useful outside of New York, too, for this reason. The reason why New York City vocabulary travels so quickly, like I kind of mentioned, is due to all the songs. Did you hear the New York accent? I said, song instead of song. All the songs, due to the many songs, TV shows, and films that are set in New York City, not filmed in New York City, but the setting is in New York City. In the USA, most TV shows are set in LA, Los Angeles, or New York City.

Think about a lot of the really popular shows that you've seen. Friends, Law & Order, Sex and the City, How I Met Your Mother, Gossip Girl. Some of the most famous TV shows, they're all set here. [00:10:00] LA though has a lot of TV shows, and I tried to see who has more, New York City or LA. And every time I looked at an article, there was a different answer. So LA has had shows like The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Beverly Hills, 90210, Entourage. A lot of movies that are filmed by Netflix, a lot of them take place in LA. However, language that comes from New York quickly becomes very famous, very popular American language. So here are the 25 words that I'm going to teach you in this episode. Lit, whack, kicks, chill out, tight, you good, you feel me, I'm not about that life, throwback, to play someone, that's so legit, wishy-washy, mad crazy, to front, spazz out, you're [00:11:00] trippin' or you're buggin', I'm shook, pie, slice, bodega, yooz, y'all, to cop something, to OD, catch these hands, real talk.

All right. Before we get into the story, I just want to remind you that there's a study guide waiting for you. Go to the episode description and click the link and it'll take you to the file that has all the study guides from every episode. If you're already on my email list, you'll get an email. Maybe you already got one. Just check your email for the study guide.

All right. Let's get to the story. Two weeks ago, Jamie and his friends had gone to a party in the city that was really whack. They were so disappointed that they decided they needed to throw a good party themselves. [00:12:00] So, last Saturday night, Jamie hosted a party at his place since he had the nicest apartment. The party was lit, with music blasting and everyone dancing. There were good vibes and the energy was contagious. He looked around to check on his friends and see how they were doing.

Because he was a good host, he decided to walk around, check on his friends, and see how they were doing. Jamie looked over to see his friend Alex standing in the corner with a crowd of people surrounding him. Jamie and Alex were best friends. Jamie and Alex had been tight since childhood because they grew up on the same block. Alex was showing off his fresh new kicks. Everyone was admiring them, talking about how Alex had just gotten them the day before. "I'm not about that [00:13:00] sneakerhead life," thought Jamie to himself. He couldn't imagine spending that much money on sneakers.

As the DJ played an old favorite, Jamie couldn't help but smile at this throwback. It brought back memories of simpler times. Across the room, there was some drama between Sarah and John. Sarah was having a rough time watching John flirt with some girls at the party. A few days earlier, John had completely played Sarah by going on a date with one of her friends, despite showing interest in her. Jamie assured her that she deserved better than someone who was so wishy-washy. "Love is mad crazy. I'm so glad I'm single," thought Jamie to himself.

[00:14:00] The night took a wild turn when Jamie's friend Steve started spazzing out over something really small. Jamie quickly got involved and told Steve that he was tripping and needed to chill out. Jamie was shook at how much drama was happening at the party. In order to calm people down, Jamie decided that food would be a really good idea. He suggested ordering a few pies from the pizzeria and drinks from a nearby bodega. When the food arrived, it was a welcome sight. The delicious pizza slices were quickly devoured, bringing a moment of peace to the party.

Later in the evening, Jamie overheard two of his friends discussing plans to buy concert tickets. They were eager but cautious, knowing that they needed [00:15:00] to cop the tickets before they sold out, but they didn't want to OD. The tickets cost $400 each. Jamie couldn't believe it. He looked at them and said, "Y'all are tripping." As the night continued, a minor argument erupted. One guy that Jamie didn't know was threatening to fight people. He was clearly drunk. "He's about to catch these hands if he doesn't calm down," Jamie thought to himself. Jamie looked over at the random guy and said, "You're about to catch these hands if you don't calm down." Jamie was always a peacemaker, but this time he knew that he had to step in with some real talk, reminding everyone to chill out and enjoy the night. By the end of the party, despite the ups and downs, everyone agreed that [00:16:00] the party was legit. It truly was a night to remember. The night had its challenges, but the end result was amazing.

As the guests were leaving, they all asked Jamie when he was throwing another party. He suddenly became the ultimate party host. The end.

Okay, let's talk about these words and I'll explain what they mean. Firstly, we have the words whack and lit. In the story, the party that the friends had gone to two weeks before was whack, and they were disappointed. It was the whackness of the party that inspired them to have their own party. So the slang meaning of whack is boring, dead, corny. And the opposite of that is the word [00:17:00] lit. So they said the party was lit. The word lit is so common in English. It may have been something that New Yorkers started using a lot, but it is truly everywhere throughout the United States. The word lit, on the other hand, means exciting, energetic, fun. So whack and lit in this context are opposites.

Next, in the story, they describe Jamie and Alex as being tight. Tight in this context means a close relationship. Now, the word tight also has a different slang meaning, and that is angry. And this is also a part of New York slang. "I was so tight last night when my sister lost my keys." Tight means angry. It also says that they grew up on the same [00:18:00] block. In American English, the word block is street, especially New York English.

Alex was showing off his fresh new kicks. Did you guess what kicks was? This is the slang word for sneakers. Fresh kicks. The word fresh in this context is an adjective that means new. Then Alex says, "I'm not about that sneakerhead life." So let's break this down a little bit. First of all, a sneakerhead is the name for someone who collects sneakers. They have a whole collection, and sneakers are very special to them. We call these people sneakerheads. Next, though, "I'm not about that life." This means this is not my thing, this is not my style, I'm not into this, I have no interest [00:19:00] in this.

Next up, we have the word throwback. Now, the word throwback is very common on social media. You may have seen on Instagram hashtag TBT, Throwback Thursday. And you'll see that people post an old photo of themselves or a picture from the eighties, nineties, two-thousands. They might play music from back in the day. This is throwback.

Next up, we have to play someone. Okay, so this is very, very interesting. John had played her. To play someone is to deceive someone, to trick someone, to manipulate someone. She thought he liked her, but he was just playing her.

Next up, we have the word front. To front means to lie or pretend. "Don't front like you didn't know, you knew." That's an [00:20:00] example.

Next up, we have the expression wishy-washy. Wishy-washy is when someone changes their mind a lot and when what they say cannot be trusted. So we say that they're unreliable. They change their mind often. They also might be a little bit indecisive. They can't really make solid decisions.

Next up, it says, Jamie thought to himself, "Love is mad crazy." So here, mad does not mean angry. Mad is an adjective that's used to amplify the next adjective. So it's almost like very. Very crazy. "Oh my gosh, the party was mad crazy." Very can be an adjective or an adverb. Mad as well. We can also use it to quantify people. "There were mad people at the [00:21:00] party."

Next up, it says the night took a wild turn when Steve started spazzing out. Spazz out is a really cool phrasal verb that's slang. Spazz out means to lose control in an emotional way or physical way. It's kind of like freak out, go crazy. "He totally spazzed out when he lost his phone." Like he just lost control emotionally, and even possibly physically.

The next one is you're tripping or bugging. First of all, this takes the words tripping and bugging and takes the G off, which is very common. Buggin. Trippin. So, Jamie told Steve, "You're tripping. You need to chill out." The word tripping or bugging is you're mistaken, you're acting [00:22:00] irrationally, you're not thinking clearly. If someone says, "Oh, I don't like New York," I'd be like, "Excuse me. Hey, you're tripping." Or "You're bugging." We also say you're bugging out. Same meaning here. Like, don't be ridiculous. What you're saying is clearly a mistake.

Next, it says, "You need to chill out." Chill out is mentioned more than once in the story. And this just means relax, calm down. Like, chill out. "All right, just relax. You just need to chill out." Very common in the USA to use chill out.

Next we have that he was shook. Okay, so this is a big slang word. When we say "I'm shook," it means I'm shocked. I'm surprised, like I'm shaking because I'm shocked or I'm shaking because I'm really surprised. So I'm shook by what happened. I'm shook by the news. I can't believe it.

All right, next.

We talked about food. [00:23:00] We have three food-related slang words. We have pie, we have bodega or bodega, and we have slice. Let's break these down. First of all, in English, the real definition of pie is a dessert that has fruit inside and like a nice crust on the outside, right? But in New York, a pie is a pizza pie. 

We talked about food. [00:23:00] We have three food-related slang words. We have pie, we have bodega or bodega, and we have slice. Let's break these down. First of all, in English, the real definition of pie is a dessert that has fruit inside and a nice crust on the outside, right? But in New York, a pie is a pizza pie. It's a full round pizza that's cut into typically eight slices. We have so many Italian Americans here in the United States, especially in New York and New Jersey, that we have the best American pizza because Italians brought it over and they changed it a little bit based on the ingredients that we have.

So a pie is a pizza pie. I could tell my friends, "Hey, you guys hungry, let's order a pie," meaning pizza. Now the pie is cut up into [00:24:00] eight pieces, but we don't say pieces. We say slices. So when you come to New York, you want to order pizza. You're going to go and say, "Can I get two slices to go?" or "Yeah, can I get four slices to stay?" So again, a pie, pizza pie, eight slices, and then you want to order individual slices. You just go and order individual slices. Now, we mentioned bodega. Bodega is a Spanish word. Here, it means like a corner store.

It could sell anything from drinks to cigarettes to sandwiches. And so a lot of these bodegas have sandwiches that are very delicious and very cheap. Sandwiches are big here. We eat sandwiches for lunch. In school, kids eat sandwiches for lunch every day. So a bodega is usually where people go to get some really good sandwiches like grilled chicken, avocado, and cheese, you know, things like that.

[00:25:00] Okay, the next one's really interesting. It says that when two friends are ordering concert tickets, they knew they needed to cop the tickets before they sold out, but they didn't want to OD. So the word cop has two slang meanings. One is a noun and one is a verb. As a noun, it's slang for police officer, like, "Oh, slow down. The cops are coming." But as a verb, to cop means to buy, to get, possess.

"I need to cop some new shoes."

Next, we say we don't want to OD. OD stands for overdo, do something too much. If I'm decorating a party for my friend and she says, "Don't OD," don't do too much, do the right amount. So when they're talking about tickets, when they say they don't want to OD, it means that they don't want to overpay. They don't want to do too much to go to this concert.

Jamie thought [00:26:00] to himself, yooz are trippin y'all are tripping. When we talk about everybody, we typically say you guys, like I say, you guys, right? Hey, you guys hungry? But there are alternate ways to say this. Hey, y'all hungry? That's a very Southern thing, but it's also very New York, depending on what neighborhood you live in. Hey, y'all hungry? But the Italian American Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island accent is, are yooz hungry? Yooz, yooz hungry instead of saying you all or are you all. Are you hungry? Hey, what are you doing? Or what are y'all doing? These are two slang ways to say you all. If you watch any mafia organized crime movie, you'll definitely hear them say and yooz, yooz guys. You'll what are yooz doing?

Later on in the story, there was an argument, and [00:27:00] Jamie says he's about to catch these hands if he doesn't calm down. Catch these hands is very recent. I'd say within the past five years. This means to get into a fight. If you keep talking, you're going to catch these hands, meaning like I'm going to fight you. You're going to catch or get my hands, like a fist in your face. Very, very common slang.

Then we have real talk. Jamie stepped in with some real talk. Real talk is just honesty. So a lot of times we actually say it. If my friend is complaining about her boyfriend, I'll say, Maria, real talk. You need to break up with him, like speaking honestly, speaking seriously. Real talk, you need to stop delaying and just do it already. Very, very common when we want to say something honestly, but we don't want the other person to get offended or to get mad.

[00:28:00] And then the last one is, the party was so legit. Legit is a really common slang word. It comes from the word legitimate. Legitimate is something that is real, genuine, impressive. So that's what you say. Oh, that's so legit. The party was legit. It was great, impressive, genuine, real. Oh, he's legit. I love him. He's a great friend. So we use this word a lot. It's all over the place. I'm sure you've seen it on social media. That's legit. That's so legit.

Before we end, I want to teach you, you good. Now I didn't include it in the story because you good is very complex, but it is one of the most important words that you know. In New York City and in the United States, you good in the US [00:29:00] has about 10 different meanings. So let me share what they are. Somebody trips and falls, I say, oh my gosh, you good? Are you okay? Somebody falls, and I said, oh, you good? You good? You're okay. You're okay, like I'm assuring them that they're fine. Another example, I see my friend who I haven't seen in a while. Oh my gosh, Nikki, you good? How have you been? If I'm angry, having an argument, and someone's like, but Gabby, but Gabby, I say, you good. Stop talking to me. That's what that translates to. Then if I help someone on the street and they say, oh, thank you so much, and I say, you good. Instead of you're welcome. Somebody bumps into me accidentally on the train and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, are you okay? And I say, you good. Don't worry about it. That means like you don't need to say sorry. If I'm [00:30:00] with my friend and she wants to buy something, but she doesn't have enough money, I would say, you good. You need some money? And then let's say I'm at a party and I'm helping serve food at a buffet, and I'm putting food on someone's plate and I say, you good. Did you get enough food? And then the last meaning of you good is maybe someone has like an attitude or someone's acting a little bit aggressive, and I'm going to be like, and I'm going to say, you good? Like, do you have a problem? I joke with my students all the time, and I tell them, hey, if you don't know what to say to somebody, just say you good. Because the chances are that you'll be okay when you say you good. So this is like the ultimate slang word to use in English.

And that brings us to the end. [00:31:00] You have officially learned 25 slang words today. You learned actually more than 25, because there were a few new words that I threw in there. And so you just learned more than 25 amazing words in English. And I'm so excited for you to start using these words. Using these slang words with an American person is going to be really, really impressive. And I promise you, if you watch Friends or other TV shows set in New York City, you're definitely going to hear these words and you're going to be like, oh my gosh, that's what Gabby taught me in the podcast. Whenever you hear these words in American media or from Americans, for those of you who interact with Americans, definitely let me know.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of the Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that [00:32:00] you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently. If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review.

Thanks so much for tuning in.