South Africa Slang Dictionary
South African slang is a rich, multilingual mix that borrows freely from the country's eleven official languages - isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sesotho and more - plus street languages like tsotsitaal and Sepitori. It's the language of the townships, the taxi rank, kwaito and amapiano, and everyday Mzansi life from Joburg to Cape Town to Durban. Words like eish, howzit, lekker, sharp sharp and yebo are woven into how South Africans speak every day. Explore the community-built dictionary of South African slang below - and add the words you know.
This beer is making me 6-9 every 15 minutes.
Abo mageza from Jozi are so rude and funny at the same time.
You know guys from cape Town like listening to Spaza music.
Go buy some bread at the spaza shop.
Each Kasi has its own tsotsi taal or its own way of speaking, meaning tsotsi taal from Soweto might differ from that of Pitori.
Teacher: You cannot speak that Tsotsi Taal in my class. Here we speak proper English.
She was downing 1818, that's why she's this drunk.
Don't forget your vuvuzela when we go to the stadium.
No one:
Maths textbook: Thabo bought 20 watermelons and 16 condoms, how many cousins does Thabo have?
I can't go out today, I'm in a financial comma, and I'm only getting paid next week.
Let's go buy some beer and some meat for tonight's braai.
From the way he speaks, you can tell he's such a cheese boy.