I live in Asia country, in our schools we only learn formal english.

And I played a game called GTA San Andreas, a game which took place in a African American neighborhood. I have difficulty understanding what the people are talking in this game. They all use very colliqual informal phrases and vocabulary.

Such as “keep it straight” “keep it cool””you gotta keep it real””you dig?””the street is cold”etc.

There are so many phrases I’ve never learned from my english textbook.

My question is “Do average American understand all African American slangs? or even native Americans don’t understand them all?”

39 comments

  1. Random white dude here- I usually learn about them like 10 years after they’ve been constantly used and are no longer cool.

  3. You are asking 2 vastly different questions here.

    In order to be included in a game like San Andreas, the slang needs to be common enough to be widely understood.

    That said, there is no monolith that encompasses “all” African American slang. It varies by city, by area, sometimes by neighborhood. Some of it is common, some is highly specific.

    Slang in general is never going to be in a textbook.

    Also, lots of what you seem to be assuming is African American slang could just as easily be inner city or regional.

  4. Most Americans will know what people mean when they say something like “You dig?” or “Keep it straight/real/cool.” Those are straightforward phrases that aren’t just used by black people. “The street is cold” might be more difficult but given context it would be pretty easy to figure out what the speaker means.

    I would assume that most native speakers would be able to figure out the meaning of a lot of informal phrases through context clues. That might be more difficult for ESL folks who are used to the more formal language of a textbook.

  5. It depends. Like any slang, you won’t know what you haven’t been exposed to yet. Things that are more mainstream are more widely understood. Some things you might understand from context, some might need more explanation.

    [Dave Chappelle’s bit on the subject](https://youtu.be/5QOgLFFmTFw)

  7. Do I understand the language used in GTA? Sure, that’s all widely used slang, certainly not limited to a single variant of American English. For that kind of common slang, watch American movies and TV instead of relying on text books. Text books usually teach the most formal version of English, not what people use in daily conversation.

    Do I understand all slang used in a poor, urban, majority black neighborhood? Probably not, but enough to easily understand a conversation.

  8. I just want to point out that not even all African Americans know all African American slang. I’m Black and I sure as heck don’t. As u/UltimateAnswer42 said, it often depends on the environment you grew up in, and I didn’t grow up in the type of environment that’s stereotypically associated with Black Americans.

  10. American slang (not just African American) can vary by region, city, or even neighborhoods. as a native English speaker it is easier to pick up the intent of a phrase based on context of how the phrase is used as opposed to it’s formal definition. for non native speakers much of that is lost, hence your confusion.

    i would say most Americans can work out what an unfamiliar slang term means based purely on context.

    for example, the word “minute”. if you say “i’ll only be in the store for a minute” that implies a short amount of time. on the opposite end of things, if you have not seen someone in a long time, you may say “i haven’t seen you in a minute” which implies a long period of time based on the context of the conversation.

    colloquial English is very hard compared to formal English due to the requirement of understanding more context cues in conversation.

  11. Most would have issues understanding British slang. It’s absolutely nothing to do with race. It’s just a completely different way to soak the same language.

    While these are fairly common , if I watch a YouTube video of someone speaking slang from Baltimore I would have a hard time understanding. But then again, so would most

  12. Anything likely to be included in a video game like that, yes, the average American knows.

    I learned Spanish as a second language, and I cannot understand a lot of Spanish slang. The slang I do know I learned from telenovelas or friends who are native speakers. Most formal classes don’t teach second language slang in my experience. It’s not dependent on language.

  13. The only black man phrases you need to learn are “fleecin’ it out”, “going mach 5”, “dinkin flicka”, and “pippity poppity give me the zoppity”.

  14. Can you dig is older than you might have known. Looking it up and this comes up.

    It comes from Irish immigrants particularly in New York City. In the Irish language the phrase ‘An dtuigeann tú’ translates to ‘do you unserstand’. Dtuigeann being pronounced like ‘diggin’ in Irish. Somehow through the years it made it’s was into the urban black vernacular made popular my New York based jazz musicians.

  15. English is really breaking down into dialects. I guarantee that just like American Urban dialects, you’d also struggle to understand someone speaking in colloquial dialects in Appalachia, or Scotland, or Australia. They all have phrases/grammar/vocabulary that are unique and will never show up in an english textbook because they’re not ‘proper’ english. In some ways someone from “the hood” in LA will speak more similarly to someone from a similar neighborhood in Chicago or NYC or Philly than they will someone from Mississippi or Idaho. In HS I moved from Chicago area to Houston, and was shocked at how differently some people spoke, and vice versa. But hey, y’all’re gonna do what y’all’re gonna do.

    When I moved to Texas, I didn’t realize how many yiddish phrases I had incorporated coming from a mostly Jewish community. There are lots of regional variations like soda vs. pop vs. coke, or firefly vs. lightning bug, or yard sale vs. rummage sale vs. tag sale.

    Really for understanding it’s all about exposure – we watch a lot of British shows, but I still struggle with some Scottish dialects, and sometimes I’ll hear someone from someplace like West Virginia, or Louisiana and it’s hard to understand. Urban slang like San Andreas is widely understood by most people from it’s use in Film and TV.

    English is always evolving and new phrases and expressions will continue to be created.

  17. The slang used in GTA 5 was about five years out of date when the game came out. So yeah if you live in an urban area you probably do know them.
    If you live out in the wilderness. Maybe not.

  18. Most people can use context clues to figure out what slang words and phrases mean if they have never heard them. Some people purposefully pretend to not understand slang, and some actually don’t understand slang.

  19. Some of it I do, and some I don’t. I can usually get it based on context, but sometimes I’m left going “What?”

  20. A couple of things to point out first.

    For one, GTA:SA doesn’t take place in an African American neighborhood. It takes place in a ghetto ran by a gang. It’s a big difference.

    Secondly, the phrase Native American means something very specific here. Native Americans are decedents of the people who were living here before Europeans showed up. We would never call a random white/black person who was born here a Native American. They are just a citizen. Or if you want to be really specific, a natural born citizen (meaning they were born here).

    As for the slang. There are hundreds if not thousands of different subcultures in the USA. Each one will have their own customs and slang. So every American isn’t going to understand the slang that any given subculture uses.

    That said, a lot of the slang and such that is used in GTA:SA is fairly generic hip hop / rap culture slang so it’s going to be understood by a lot of poeple yea. Plus it’s in a video game, so the developers are really only using slang that the majority of their audience are going to understand.

  21. What others have said. If it’s in that video game, it’s pretty commonly understood. But in real life, the latest slang can still be completely foreign at times.

  23. I think San Andreas was probably how my 11 year old self learned some slang. The more you expose yourself to American media the more informal conversations you will be exposed to. Over time you will be able to get a broad idea of what you are hearing. Like “Keep it cool” just means don’t make a big deal about this or “you dig?” just means ‘do you understand?’.

    ​

    Honestly, I’m in my 30’s now and whatever kids say now I have absolutely no idea what they’re going on about and I don’t really care to learn anymore either lol

  24. I would say most Americans understand the slang used in that game. New slang is being invented every day so some people might not be caught up on new slang words just yet.

    Edit: but also to expand, slang is also regional and the US is a huge place so I live in VA on the east coast but there maybe west VA slang I don’t understand, or Midwest slang or west coast slang and so on

  25. >Such as “keep it straight” “keep it cool””you gotta keep it real””you dig?””the street is cold”etc.

    Lol this is like what a D.A.R.E video thinks black people sound like

  26. I had a visiting pastor preach at my church once. He was black, and during his sermon he said, “And somebody said they got a new whip. Sorry, I forgot this is a bunch of white folk. Whip means car.”

  28. A lot of times when words or sayings jump dialects they take on different meanings. So something may originate from African American Vernacular English but take on a different meaning among non-AAVE speakers. Meaning Americans who don’t speak AAVE may have an “understanding” of the saying but one that is inconsistent with its original meaning in AAVE. I understand that this can be really grating to AAVE speakers, adding insult to the injury of AAVE being perceived as “broken” English rather than a distinct dialect with its own consistent linguistic characteristics. This is all made more complicated by the fact that there are regional variants of AAVE, just as non-AAVE speakers from, LA, Houston, Chicago, and New York all speak English somewhat differently.

  30. Two things:

    1. Yes, most younger Americans understand modern slang.

    2. The slang that you’re referring to as black slang isn’t necessary black slang—it’s young, urban slang. I live in Brooklyn and hear new slang all the time, but it’s not just black people who use it frequently—by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a city thing. I’d assume if you went to bum fuck North Dakota and started talking to someone the way you would in New York, they’d be able to understand you via context, but a lot of the slang would be unfamiliar to them.

  31. Usually if you speak English fluently you can figure it out with context clues. There is African American Vernacular English which is considered a dialect by some and has its own rules and stuff, but it’s not the same as common slang used by black people in the US. The examples you gave are just some slang phrases 🙂

  32. It’s African American in origin but it’s American slang overall. Older or very out-of-touch adults might not understand some of the phrases, but these words and phrases appear pretty commonly across all pop culture here.

    I’m a white middle aged man from Tennessee and those games and their cultural representations are pretty commonly known.

  35. While the lines you quoted probably do have their roots in African-American slang, they’re either dated enough to be widely known (“keep it cool”) or one can infer their meaning pretty easily. African-American vernacular is where a lot of this slang originates, and some newer terms haven’t become widespread yet, but I think it’s safe to say that the stuff that finds its way into GTA has.

  36. ….When you say “average,” do you mean, “white?” Because you also say “even native Americans” and unless you’re talking about indigenous Americans, I just want to say that black people often *are* natively American. We were born here too and some of us have been here longer than many white Americans. Same for Latino and Asian Americans as well.

    I don’t think you mean anything negatively by it but I really hate the common conception that American = white and the rest of us are ‘add-ons.” Just want to clarify that.

    But yes, slang in general changes all the time, is often localized to geographies and then again differentiates sometimes by race or economic status. But if it’s in something as mainstream as GTA, you can assume most folks get it or get the context.

  37. As a non-black American that grew up in a densely urban area I understand most urban slang of my area and time. But the trick to Urban dialects of American English is that they are extremely fluid and the slang changes quickly.
    Think about how fast Cantonese slang in Hong Kong changes? That’s similar to some slang in America.

    Also some call it African-American Vernacular, but in any major city it’s ANY poor urban person of any race that speaks this way. I know pale blue eyed white girls that sound exactly like any of the characters from GTA and they are not faking it – they where raised with the accent and dialect.

    Americans love to confuse race and class, also Americans often assume black and brownness equates to urban poverty because our society literally used the law to keep non-whites living within certain designated areas for generations.

    So the answer to your question is, it depends on age, and region. Some parts of urban slang become part of general colloquialisms used in the culture at large, some are hyper-regional, and some never seem to leave the class/culture they are in.

    To give you an idea, Baltimore and Washington aren’t more than 50 miles apart and yet the slang and accent are different.

    Baltimore vs Dc Slang
    https://youtu.be/zxQri7XWipE

    Philly vs New York Slang
    https://youtu.be/Ffg-mzgIX5o

    TL;DR America is big.

  38. Want to add something here: usually by the time non-Black Americans adopt Black slang, that slang is already seen as outdated within the Black community

  39. Yes and no. AAVE (African American Vernacular English) is relatively widespread and many Americans of all races use and understand terms from it. Whether that’s acceptable or not is a hotly debated topic. The ones you are running into in GTA are ones that yes, most Americans will understand whether they use them regularly or not.

    That being said, there is also a lot of regional slang that you may never hear if you are not from that region. For example, I learned the term “fugazi” not that long ago thanks to an episode of Catfish. It’s a common enough term in its own region that it’s in the lyrics to Girls Like You by Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B.

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