hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's
first and number one English Fluency
Guide and it is a pleasure to welcome
you to another video here on YouTube
today we are going to talk about slang
this is such a big part of the English
language and it's a thing that I often
receive questions about because people
have maybe trouble understanding slang
and also using it in their conversations
so first of all just a thing about the
English language in general slang is a
really important part of English and
it's such an important part of the
language for you to study because even
in business situations so situations
where you might not think casual
language would be used slang is often
used a lot and so we do have situations
in English which is maybe something
different from a language like Japanese
so this is the other language I speak
fluently so in a business situation you
wouldn't really be using slang but in a
business situation in English people do
speak more casually and friendly again
it's just the different ways that the
language is structured or how people
speak but in general English English is
a bit more casual language especially
even when you're speaking in business
situations so because it's such an
important thing I wanted to talk about
slang in this video now there are
actually a lot of topics about slang
specific ways of using it or when you
should use it but I wanted to be very
specific to give maybe a broad overview
of slang and just help you understand 10
slang words there of a specific kind of
slang again there's so many different
things about slang to learn and this is
why we teach hundreds of these different
words in programs like master English
conversation and the fluency course
which you can learn more about it
English anyone calm but just for this
video again I want to give an overview
of slang so you understand just one
piece of this and really why people are
using slang in the first place now this
is probably true for your language as
well as it is for English but there are
really basically two reasons why people
use slang the first one is because it
saves time often people will be just
using slang in conversations because the
other person understands what they're
saying and they don't use the whole you
know the whole word because they don't
have to say
so the word hippopotamus or the word
rhinoceros for example these are both
words where we can shorten them because
people understand what we're talking
about so if we point and say oh look at
that hippopotamus over there people
don't typically say that they say look
at that hippo or look at that Rhino in
the case of a rhinoceros anyways again
the first reason why we're doing this is
because we're shortening the language
because we want to communicate more more
fluently and faster because people
already understand what we're saying if
we're just cutting any word down then
people might not understand what we're
saying but we have the the slang
developed as a kind of sub language so a
subset of the language within a language
like English where we can use that
because again it's faster to say now the
other and maybe reason that we don't
really talk about but this is kind of
the the more important reason why we use
slang is because when we use it
it connects us with other people within
a certain group now to me you would
typically have the the main English
language like what you would see on CNN
or other business news programs this is
the way people are trained to speak so
almost everyone that speaks English or
understands English can understand what
they're saying but slang becomes part of
a subgroup of each of these kind of the
each of these smaller groups within the
larger group of English speakers so you
might have some subgroup within a town
or at a university or you know a sports
team or something like that but people
create their own language their own
words their own ways of speaking so that
they connect with each other and this is
just something we do as people where we
have that inside group outside group
connection so we know who's included in
this club and who is not so if you know
the language that native speakers are
using or within that particular group
like again you don't have to think about
you know everybody but really especially
if you are living in a english-speaking
country or in an english-speaking
country you know like America needs so
in the United States or the United
Kingdom or Australia any of these places
will have smaller subgroups so your
community you might have a particular
word or phrase for you know an object
like like a dessert or even like a
something like a soft drink like
coca-cola so it might be a coke in one
place or a pop in another or a soda in
another place and so these again are
just different words that if you can use
them you'd become part of that group and
so for these two reasons it's really
important for you to use slang so one of
the first things I want to talk about or
it gets kind of the main thing I'd like
to talk about in this video is just to
really give you some explanations and go
over some some specific slang words so
we'll go over ten of these slang words
for just one category of slang and this
is where we take a word that's commonly
used and we shorten it so there are
again as I just mentioned these kind of
small areas just like you would probably
have within your own town or maybe your
own school or your own even group of
friends you have your own words and
phrases that you use it nobody else
understands and that makes you a
stronger group but these ten things that
we'll cover today are used by pretty
much every native speaker so they are
the general slang things that anybody
would probably understand so let's get
into these the first one is legit legit
and this is the shortened version of
legitimate legitimate so legitimate just
means real or correct or true and you
can see it's a longer word legitimate
legitimate but we're using this when we
just want to speak it in a casual and
conversational way we just say legit
legit
there was an old MC Hammer song back in
the 90s I believe called too legit to
quit so he's like a really cool guy and
it's like the proper or correct way of
doing something so you can say that
someone has a legitimate concern about
something that just means they have a
real question or it's a true question or
like this is something we should really
look at but in a casual conversational
way and even in a business setting you
can talk about something being legit so
I don't really think this is a legit way
of doing something like if you're not
following the rules it's not legit legit
the next one is fridge fridge and this
is short for refrigerator refrigerator
so everyone has this in their home a
refrigerator or also known as the icebox
so this is the old term for it where
people actually had a block of ice
delivered to their home maybe people do
that in some places still but typically
people have a regular refrigerator but
most people just casually and
conversationally refer to it as the
fridge so can you get me something from
the fridge open the fridge and grab me a
beer fridge fridge the next one is props
props and this is a kind of tricky one
that most people they do use it but they
don't really understand what it comes
from and this is well I guess the best
way to say it is like you get the proper
respect or the proper maybe
recommendation or recognition that kind
of thing
so proper respect or proper recognition
just this is really just a way of
describing ok you like did something
well we're going to give you props so
we're going to give you recognition for
doing that but instead of saying
something longer like proper recognition
we just say I'm going to give you props
for that so you can give someone props
for doing something doing something
that's really a good job problems props
the next one is ammo ammo so when you
have ammo this is short for ammunition
and you can describe the physical ammo
that you might have for maybe a gun
something like that so ammo is just
talking about the bullets but it can
also mean any any kind of resource you
have when you're going into war or if
there's like a business disagreement or
you're having a debate with someone so
as an example if you're having a debate
with someone the ammo you have is all of
the different arguments that you might
use in that debate so if you have no
arguments then you have no ammo to using
that in that debate or that discussion
ammo ammo the next one another great
business term is perks you'll hear this
a lot when people are talking about
applying for jobs or if they are
offering jobs and job applicants will
say oh what are the perks of the job or
my job has really great perks now this
is short for the word perquisite
perquisite perk was it but people will
very rarely use the word perk was it in
fact if you ask people what perks is
short for they probably won't even be
able to tell you because perk was it is
just a longer and harder word to say but
really you don't need to use it because
perks is much easier and faster but it
just means some kind of benefit or
ward so I really love the perks of my
job because I can stand here and record
these videos without having to go
anywhere special I don't have to put on
a suit or tie that's one of the perks of
my job
next is ABS so we'll talk about ABS and
ABS is one of those things because just
like any of your other body parts and
abs is your stomach muscles what people
often referred to as a 6-pack if you've
got that it looks like a 6-pack of
drinks but if you talk about the
different muscle groups they typically
come from Latin these are longer words
like your butt muscles these are your
glutes or your gluteus maximus muscles
and again that's really long when people
are at the gym they don't want to talk
about well I am exercising my gluteus
maximus muscles you just say I'm working
on my butt or whatever so the same thing
for your abs I believe these are called
your abdominal abductors or something
but at least you're just abdominal is
that middle section in your body where
your belly is so your abs is just a
short way of doing that so this becomes
the shortened version for saying that in
a much more casual and conversational
way next hood hood the hood is short for
the word neighborhoods you can say well
in my hood we do this and this is again
something that you can use in a casual
conversation like I like when I was down
in the hood you know just while I'm you
know going out and shopping or something
like that but this is again typically
something this word specifically
wouldn't be something you would use in a
business situation I mean you could use
it casually with maybe some colleagues
if you're speaking with them at business
but it's maybe if you want to talk about
locations or areas in a business
situation where you can see how use the
word hood when you're talking about
things in a casual way hood
next is vibe vibe now when you want to
talk about the vibe of something this is
the feeling of it and this is short for
the word vibration so if you want to
talk about the atmosphere of a room wow
this this party really has some great
vibes I'm enjoying the vibe of this
concert so you can talk about vibe or
vibes it doesn't really matter but again
it's just talking about the general
atmosphere of a particular place the
vibe so how
the vibe at school how's the vibe with
the meeting so any kind of situation
we're talking about what's the general
mood or atmosphere of that thing vibe
vibe next is spec spec spec is short for
specification specification so again
this is one of those longer words that
especially even in business terms if
you're working in a factory or you
devise maybe some kind of software or
even just any kind of hardware or other
technology like a machine you can say
what are the specs of this thing as
opposed to the specifications or you can
say this this machine is built within
some kind of specification or some kind
of spec so again it's just a way of
expressing this longer thing that most
people understand in a shorter way spec
spec and the final one is wizz wizz now
a wizz is someone just like a wizard
which is what this is short for and you
can spell this as wi z or whi z but it
just refers to someone's very someone
who is very smart so uh this person is
he's great with computers he is a
computer whiz or he's a whiz with
numbers so this is a really smart person
or if someone that understands math very
well a whiz well that's all of these and
again this is just one part of slang
there are different things about it but
really this is why we use slang so again
the reason to study slang the reason
it's such an important thing and why we
teach it and teach so many slang words
and expressions in the phrasal in the
fluency course and master English
conversation is because again it's used
in casual and professional situations so
this is something you really should
practice and you can probably find lots
of videos right here on YouTube that
help you understand lots of slang
expressions as well anyway if you have
enjoyed this video and you'd like to
learn more about this if you have any
questions about slang specifically or
other things may be related to this do
let us know in the comment section down
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finally the last and most important
piece is if you'd like to learn more
things like slang
and understand vocabulary especially
things like phrasal verbs and idioms
these are all conversational vocabulary
in addition to slang that are really
important for both casual and
professional situations if you'd like to
learn more about these click on the link
in this video or on the link in the
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conversational English quickly well
that's it for this video and I look
forward to seeing you in the next one
bye bye