Lately, I've been missing the country and the people who live there a whole lot, so it seemed like a good time to remember all the funny phrases that South Africans use.
You would think that because they speak English, it would be easy to communicate and understand what they're saying. But don't be fooled! They say a lot of funny phrases that I had never heard before, and a lot of times I had no idea what they were telling me!
For your enjoyment, and in case you ever travel to South Africa and want to be able to communicate, here is a list of South African-isms from A-Z...
Air con= abbreviation for air conditioner (instead of "AC" or just "air")
Braai, bakkie= Braai means "BBQ" (very popular meal), "bakkie" means "pick-up truck"
Chips, cutlery= Chips mean "French fries," cutlery means "silverware"
Drinks: cold drinks, appletiser= cold drinks mean "soda", appletiser is a type of delicious soda
Eish= used simililarly to "wow," but can mean anything you want it to mean
Flushing toilets= couldn't think of a phrase for F, but random fact about flushing toilets: the handle to flush the toilet is on the right side of the tank (and it's really hard to get used to!)
Granny= grandma (they refer to any and all grandmas as "granny")
Half past, howzit?= Half past seven means "7:30," howzit? means "how's it going?"
It's a pleasure= you're welcome
Just now= in a few minutes (the hardest phrase to get used to since it has a completely different meaning in the US)
Keen= who's keen on going? means who wants to go?
Lekker= cool or great
Matric= Senior year of high school (short for matriculation)
Now now= right now (the opposite of just now)
Oh shame= that's too bad
Petrol, packet= Petrol means gas (petrol station= gas station), packet means bag (like grocery bag)
Queue= line
Rubbish bin, robot= Rubbish bin means "trash can," robot means "traffic signal" (like you have to stop at the red robot)
Slip, SMS, sharp sharp= slip means "receipt," SMS means "text message," sharp sharp (sounds like shop shop with their accents) means "cool" or "I understand"
Toilet, take away= toilet means "restroom," take away means "to go" (like ordering to go at McDonalds)
Umgungundlovu= the name of the county we were living in (means Place of the Elephant in isiZulu)
Vervet= type of monkeys that terrorized us every day
Woza= Come (in isiZulu)
X click= they use a click for the letter x in isiZulu
Yebo, yoh= Yebo means "yes" (in isiZulu), yoh means the same thing as eish
Zed, zebra= Zed means the letter "Z" (they pronounce it zed instead of zee), so zebra is pronounced zeh-bra instead of zee-bra
