hi I'm Jenna and this is learn academic English where I teach intermediate and advanced level
lessons for English Learners who want to take their English to the next level especially to
prepare for school or a job today I'm going to talk about some very slangy American slang this
is the word hella how to use the word hella and what does it mean the reason I'm talking
about this is that well this is not academic English but if you plan to go to school in the
United States especially if you plan to live in California you need to know this word because
you're going to hear it a lot and if you're just curious about improving your English
vocabulary maybe you like to watch series or movies or listen to music in English you might
come across this word hello fun hello rich oh that's hella nice though also I've noticed that
some people who are native English speakers are curious about this word they've heard it
but they're not quite sure how to use it so hopefully you will find this video helpful
so first we need to know that the word hella is slaying and what does that mean that means that
this is language that's not used by everyone it's definitely used more by young people
teenagers or people in their 20s and it originated in Northern California so when I was growing up
here in Northern California I heard this word all the time and it became part of my vocabulary
then it became more popular maybe 20 25 years ago so now it's possible to hear this word in
other places in the U.S but it is still especially common in Northern California
so remember that it is slaying and because of that it's also not considered appropriate to
use it in certain situations so we never use it in writing for school this would be only used
in conversations with friends or texting or other very informal language and you do want to notice
that it includes the word hell so some people may even find it offensive well I did want to
point out that we have a more pull light form which is heka so you might hear people use heka
and it's exactly the same I'm hecka tired Mrs heck is serious if English is not your first language
I don't really recommend that you use this word unless you're speaking in English is very Advanced
the reason for that is that it's probably a good idea for you to focus on improving your speaking
fluency pronunciation and vocabulary before you try to incorporate these very slangy words
but if you live in California or other places in the U.S and you spend a lot of
time with young people you definitely want to be able to understand it and maybe use it too
okay so first of all I wanted to point out that some people assume that hella is a shortened
form of hellava for example I have a hell of a lot of work to do I have hella work to do but
that doesn't really work because the word hella is extremely flexible what does that mean that means
that we can use the word hella in many different parts of speech it's extraordinarily flexible in
a way that we rarely see in language and I'll show you some examples so first hella can mean
very or so and it can modify an adjective so in this case it's used as an adverb that modifies an
adjective in the same way that we would use very or so for example I'm hella tired I'm hella tired
what does that mean I'm so tired I'm very tired I'm extremely tired and I am hella smart another
way to use hella is the same way that we might say a lot of a lot of like hella plus a noun
hella homework I have hella homework she has hella money she has a lot of money we stole a
hell of peppermints okay and the next way is to mean really very so or a lot used again as an
adverb and so we might use hella to describe another adverb just like we might say very
drives hella fast he drives hella fast he drives very fast he drives extremely fast
we can also use hella plus a verb I hella slept or we could use it the same way we use a lot we could
say I slept hella what does that mean I slept a lot I've been getting halfway into Mexico lately
so again as we can see hella is very very flexible we can use it before an adjective we can use it
before a noun or we can use it to describe adverbs or verbs just like we would if we said very really
so or a lot now the interesting thing is that these words have different grammar right so you
have to remember how to use them because they are different but the great thing about hella
is it doesn't matter you can use it in all these different ways so it is very flexible and easy
which one is the most common probably this one I'm hella tired or this one is also very common
I have hella homework okay before we stop let's take a look at a few example sentences to help
you understand exactly how this word is used so let's see some example sentences with hella I'm so
hungry we can change so too hella I'm hella hungry and remember here that hella can describe an
adjective I'm very hungry I'm so hungry I'm hella hungry okay next one let's go I'm really late
so here really is describing the adjective late really is an adverb but we can use hella
I'm hella late I can't go to the party I have a lot of work so here a lot of is
describing work the noun but we can use hella and we can say I have hella work I have a lot of work
all right next I'm stuffed I ate a lot of pizza
just like the previous one we can change a lot of to hella but look what else we can do here we
can actually take this out and we could also just say I ate hella I ate hella I ate a lot
next she plays the piano very well so here very is an adverb that describes
another adverb well but we can use hella she plays the piano hella well
finally I really love this song really is an adverb that describes the verb
love but we can use hella and we can say I hella love this song
so my son is in high school and as you can imagine he uses a lot of slang and we live
in Northern California where this is used all the time and I am sure that if I listened to
his speech I would very rarely hear him use these words that you know and instead I think he would
use hella almost a hundred percent of the time so again if you plan to move to the United States
especially if you plan to be in California or if you just want to improve your vocabulary so that
you can understand music movies and other things you might want to notice that we use the word
hella it is slang but we use it in all these different ways to say really so very a lot of
Etc if you found this video helpful please don't forget to give it a like leave a comment
and subscribe if you want more lessons from an American English teacher and don't forget to
check the description box below where I will leave a question that you can use to practice and please
don't hesitate to ask if you have questions take care and I hope to see you back here soon