This one’s for our Irish readers! If you are Northern Irish and in London like our features writer Chandni, then you will know exactly how she felt when she first came to London. A lot of things confused her -the lack of greenery, the lack of smiles from total strangers, the absence of white pudding in your morning fry up, the traffic, how quick the bus comes etc. etc. But what truly confused her was the way English Londoners spoke. They use words that she had never heard before – “Buff Ting, Alie” or words that made no sense in a sentence at all – “Rahh that’s bare long” (yeah exactly what the f**k!)
So below is Chandni’s list of translations of the top twenty London slang words for the Irish readers. You need to know these, especially if you read Trapped on a regular basis .
1. Trap – Area where drug deals are carried out, usually street corners
2. P’s and L’s – Money and Losses
3. Alie – I agree; or for us ‘Aye’
4. Allow me – Leave/Stop it; for us ‘Get to f**k!’
5. Bare – A lot of; or for us ‘while’
6. Chirpsing/moving to – flirting; for us ‘tackling’
7. Creps – Shoes or trainers; for us ‘Slippers’
8. Finesse – Persuade
9. Ends – Area/neighbourhood
10. Gassed – Someone who’s ‘up themselves’
11. Trapping – Selling drugs
12. Buffting – someone attractive; or for us “a ride”
13. What you saying? – What you up to (No it doesn’t mean someone wants a fight, Chandni found out the hard way!)
14. Po-po – the police; or for us ‘Peelers’
15. Rahh – Exasperation; equivalent to ‘Jesus!’
16. Peng – Goodlooking
17. Safe – Cool/good/sweet; for us ‘Grand’
18. Skeen – I see; for us ‘Awright’
19. Wag-one (Wah’gwan) – Short for What’s going on; for us ‘What’s the crack?’
20. Yard- House; for us ‘gaf’
It really grows on you truss’ me! Little fun fact for you all, most of these are abbreviated from Jamaican Patois. If ya dun’ know what that is educate yourself!
Words: Chandni Guram – @Chandni_Guram
