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American Accent Posts

Mastering American Slang

9/7/2017

 

​Author: Ela Britchkow, Speech Therapist, Accent Reduction Specialist

"Adopt the pace of nature: Her secret is patience."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

The man pictured is confused about what Americans are saying because he doe not understand American Slang words and phrases. Reading the blog will help you better understand what your American friends are saying.Slang is informal nonstandard speech made up of newly coined and rapidly changing words and phrases.

​If English is not your first language, and someone said to you, “my coworker just gave me the cold shoulder so I don’t think I’ll hang out with him until he lightens up,” you might be wandering what he’s talking about. If your food is spicy and your American friend says “it’s too hot”, what is he talking about? Below are some typical American English Slang words and phrases that may help you understand the Americans you’re communicating with.
​
  1. Down to earth- Practicality and lack of pretense.
  2. Drive up the wall-To irritate
  3. The cold shoulder-Deliberately ignoring someone.
  4. Hang out-To casually gather together or spend time with someone socially.
  5. Knock-to speak negatively, to disparage, to badmouth
  6. Lighten up-To relax
  7. Sweet-Something that is good or nice
  8. Tight- closeness between competitors or friends (for example: a tight competition; those two are tight)
  9. Trash- Destruction (“He trashed the car.”)
  10. Take a raincheck-Postponing or rescheduling a meeting between people to some later date that is more convenient. Reorder a product that isn’t available.
  11. Shoot the breeze-killing time with idle chit-chat
  12. All wet-completely wrong (Your ideas about politics are all wet.)
  13. Hit-successful. Your proposal was a hit with the boss.
  14. In-fashionable. The tie you are wearing is really fashionable.
  15. Cool-good; this is a really cool place to work.
  16. Dead-quiet; the club is really dead tonight.
  17. John-bathroom
  18. Ketchup-sauce
  19. Pouring-raining
  20. Hot-spicy
These are just a few expressions you might hear. If there are other expressions that you have heard that you would like to share with us, we would love to know about them.
Also, if you hear a slang word or idiom that you don’t understand, send that over to me, also and I’ll try to interpret it for you.

​Are you repeatedly asked, “What?” or “Can you say that again?”
  • Quickly reduce infuriating requests, by pronouncing correctly one key misleading English sound.​
Receive FREE mini-lesson to master this sound and be confidently understood. 
 
By Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist
©2017 Ela Britchkow

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    ​Ela Britchkow, Speech and Language Pathologist, American English Pronunciation Specialist

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Pronunciation Posts:
​American Slang Words and Phrases: What Are They Talking About?
​
Can Idiomatic Expressions Be Political?
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​English is rapidly becoming the world's main language. In almost every country, better education and employment opportunities depend more and more on a person's ability to speak English clearly and be understood. Internationally, the American accent is best understood among other English speakers.
Ela Britchkow© 2017 Speech and Language Services PC
  • Home
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  • Languages
    • Indian
    • Slavic
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  • Services
    • Eliminating Speech Conditions
  • International Training
  • Careers/ Medical/ Education
    • All Careers
    • Medical Professions
    • Education
  • Free Learning Tools
    • Speech Screening-3
    • Special Offer
    • Pass USMLE Step 2 CS-
    • 7 tips to pass the TOEFL
  • Meet Ela
  • Contact Us
  • American Accent Training for IT Professionals