Young Writers Society

I'm not American, not even close- so I need a bit of helping because I'm writing a story about two American teenagers trying to survive in a strange country. I'm not looking for curse words or anything,just the type of thing you guys say when you see something amazing, or stub your toe or are in a really heated argument with someone.

I don't want their language to sound corny so I'd love your help!



E.x.

-Shoot
-Gosh
-Cheese on a cracker

I'm not American but that what my friends say!

Something amazing: oh my gosh, dude! (depending on the formality)
Stubbing toes: dang it, oh snap
And to get really trendy: ZOMG!

And from which part of the US would these teens be from? Your slang will vary hugely between each coast, north, south!

Like Meshugenah said, the slang does vary depending on where in America you're from. Here are some common ones though,

Dough - Money
Ace - Very good
Awesome - Great
Dude - well, dude
Shoot - Damn
Oh My Gawd - Oh my god
Cop - Police Officer
Cram - Study hard
Dork - Nerd


There are loads more
I'd Google it if I were you
This website ahs lots of them ~ http://www.manythings.org/slang/

something awesome: cool, sweet, beast, boss, major

if stubbed toes: fiddlesticks, tartar sauce, crab snacks

if i got in an argument with someone, I'd have to call them a lint-licker

American Slang? I'm in America! (currently, right now I'm flying all over the world, so I have no deffinite home )

Hmm, some words are: Dang, Oh me gosh, sweet, cool, OMG, and What the heck.

And, ya, it depends where you are in America, cause the slang is diffrent in diffrent places.

If you're looking for names guys call each other, here are a few.
"dude"; "brother"; "brah" (don't ask me where that came from!)

yo - like 'yo man, what's up?' I think it's like a variation of 'you' or something
dog(or 'dawg')/dude/bro/brah - reference to people, mainly used when trying to get someones attention, "Hey dude~"
Mickey D's - McDonalds. "Hey man, I'm going to Mickey D's, you wanna come?"
What's up?/Wuzzup? - mainly just a greeting, not usually really asking for how it's going "What's up, bro?" "It's all good dude~"
dang/shoot/darn/frick - used to show displeasure, mainly just variations of curses
"Dang it!"
beast/epic - awesome, super awesome, or just really cool/ great "Yo man I saw this epic thing on the internet last night, it was beast."

I know there's a LOT more but that's all I have for now.

Epic- Really awesome or big

Epic Fail- A really big screw up that's not really big at all. Like if you drop your pencil on the floor and go to pick it up but accidently drop everything else your holding.

That's Whats She Said- After someone says something that has unintentional refrences to sex or sexual phrases, someone says this. As in,

"Mikey, push it in harder!" Sandra said as her friend Mike tried to sharpen his pencil.

"That's what she said!" Randomer #1 exclaimed.

Beast or Beastly- What you call the mega awesomeness of the world.

jasminebells wrote:Epic- Really awesome or big

Epic Fail- A really big screw up that's not really big at all. Like if you drop your pencil on the floor and go to pick it up but accidently drop everything else your holding.

I definitely agree with those

It really does depend on where you are. I live in southern California, so I do hear (and say) dude, awesome, yo, and oh my gosh a lot.
I, personally, tend to say "crap" a frequently when I mess something up, however big or small it is, and so do most of the people I hang out with. But, like I said, it depends where you're from.

I've noticed lately that EVERYONE says like in every other word. Such as:


Like, last night, i was like, takin' a shower, and like, this like, uhh... , like, you know, umm, like a big hairball, just like came up outta nowhere, and i was like, freaked, man...

People from New England say wicked. As in, that was wicked awesome. We also somehow find ways of using 'nasty' and 'sick' in ways that mean awesome. Such as; "Dude, that flip was freakin' sicknasty. I wish I could do something that awesome. Maybe that's just where I'm from, even though I haven't heard people use 'sicknasty' in a while. It depends on where you're from, really. We call money bucks (as is "do you have a couple of bucks?") and everyone (esp. teenage girls) says like. Like, a lot. And it's annoying. The south is a whole 'nother story, don't ask me about them.

Honestly, if you want slang, read Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. Plenty of slang examples in there.

Dude! I say dude a lot. Just because. I also say like. Like, a lot. Then there's "What?" I talked with smaur (who's from Canada) on the phone and she kept saying, "Pardon?" when she didn't understand me. The politeness freaked me out. I mean, over here, we say, "What?" when we don't understand people. When I talk with people I know in the phone, I'll typically say, "Hey, what's up?" Though it sounds like, "Hey, wassup?" since I slur the words together. I'm Californian... we speak fast. Though, on TV, you'll generally hear the Californian dialect.

Hmmm... when I get my voice back, I'll make a video of Grif and me talking. Maybe it'll be useful.