Young Writers Society

Well here are a couple of words/phrases that I don't think I've seen listed.

"Cool beans"- This word actually originated in like the 70s, but I have a lot of friends who still say it. It pretty much means cool, it just has 'beans' attached. Also, you can attach 'beans' to pretty much any word meaning cool. Or really anything I guess. For example, "You won the tennis tournament! Cool beans man!"

"Beast" - This is one of my favorites, because an old friend of mine used to say this a ton. It means cool, so it would be like: "Dude, that volleyball serve was beast!"

"Boss" - Same as beast.

"Beaner" - This is a slang term for a Mexican. Not meaning to be offensive to anyone, it's just a fact that this is commonly used slang.

"Wasted" - Drunk or high.

"Totally" - Mainly teenage girls, but I have known some guys who use this word a lot.

"Hardcore" - Intense. Way too awesome to just use a word like awesome.

"Chick/Gal" - Slang for girl.

"Smooth/Smooth Groove" - You handled a situation pretty well, usually used about a guy who got a date with a girl or something. In my experience, it is more often used sarcastically. "Woah, that chick was diggin you man, smooth groove."

There is a lot more slang that I could get into, mainly southern, but I just gave you general stuff. Like everyone else has said, it really depends on where your characters are from. Hope I helped!

P.S. - Here is a helpful link! Some of the words listed are words that I myself have never heard before and seem ridiculous, but most of them are common slang.

http://parentingteens.about.com/od/talk ... -slang.htm

As others have said it varies a LOT on where they are supposed to be from in America, but here's for where I am:
Something amazing: Awesome, sweet, totally rad, cool, the bomb, sweetness, wowzers. Usually they are all said with exclamation marks.

Stub a toe: Darn, crap, man, that reeks, that stinks, that sucks, stupid. Also said with exclamation marks.

Heated argument: Shut up, be quiet, retard, idiot, lame ass, lamebo, jerk, butthead, pissing me off, what's wrong with you, what the heck (or) what the heck is/was that for, I'm outta here, piss off, chill out, take a chillaxitive, ETC. Again, said with exclamation marks.

Hope some of these rude/vulgar words don't classify as curse words!

Wow, this is like a crash course on American Slang. I'm from the DC area so we, or at least me, say stuff like well "stuff", "come on"(used to express impatience), "what the hell"(used to express surprise, confusion, fear in some cases." Also, another old slang term, before cool (I think) was rad, which means the same thing.

Injury: We will swear. A lot.
Something Awesome happens: Cool! Wow. "Intense! Sleeping bags are "in tents."" "That's bananna's!" Epic! (that's a big one!)
Someone says something good about themself that isn't true. "Who are you kidding?" "Don't kid yourself" "You don't know Jack Sh*#" "You're full of beans. " "Not even"
Insults: "Dumb nuts" "numb nuts" "Whore" "Douch Bag!" (very common) "epic fail"
Bad insults: "Your face!" "Your MOM!" "YOUR MOM'S FACE!" (and so on.)

Lol, I'm sure you don't still need this, but for what it's worth, "legit" (as in a shortened form of the word "legitimate") is HUGE right knew when referring to something that's either just plain awesome, or the real deal.

Well if they're from the South like me, use words like ya'll and aint. Every other teenager also uses crap, freakin, and dang. Im not sure if those are curse words were you come from. We also use the word "like"alot as in "She is like the scariest person alive."

I'm American! Haha. Hope I can help.
I use:
Dang it
Shoot
Crap
Frick
Fricker
Fudge
Oh my god
What the hell
What the f***
Darn it
Shiz

If I'm mad at someone names:
Doucher
Douche
Jerk
Egoenthusastic

Text language:
LMAO- Laughing my a** off
TTYL- Talk to you later
Brb- Be right back
WTF- What the f***

Most of the time it's just what comes to mind, you'd probably have to have a conversasion with an American person to get how they really talk! Hope I could help you!! (:
Ps- If you need anymore help I'd be more than happy to. Just message me.. or something!! (:

HEt dude, what's up?

Nothing much, just stubbed my toe.

what did you say?

Ouch god jeez

Well, if you don't want it to be corny, its going to have to be a pretty dirty novel, sad to say.

Not to invoke racism, but there is no denying that race, location, and background are the big effectors. East coast people usually have clearer accents, people from the south talk slower with usually a faster sound to the words. (Words sound like they should be said fast, but are said slowly, if that makes sense).

Had to post, can't help myself sometimes.

Like a lot are saying, it depends on what part, and even what demographic you're talking about. Texas alone could very easily be 5 different states with distinguishable cultures. Btw, does anyone even live in the panhandle?

I'm probably not the best to ask for slang though. I do notice recurring slang that goes from popular to 'uncool' and back from district to district, age group to age group. The majority of which makes me cringe to hear.

Cool is a "safe bet" for something perceived as possessing "trendy" qualities.

You also have epic, epic fail, epic win, win: "that wins so much" or even "you (epically) failed so hard/bad". Of course I attended an arguably "nerd/geek" school for 4 and a half years from 2005-2009. Jargon mirrored a lot of trends from "nerdy/geeky" online communities like 4chan, xkcd/"geek humor", wow/general mmos, and fan sites for star trek/star wars/lord of the rings, etc. We also got a lot of people all over the world who worried about fitting in and would stiffly/awkwardly employ (old) slang. I am now reminded of a particular episode of the animated series "King of the Hill" >.<

A lot of slang comes from notable traits of popular or well known businesses, names and/or people with terms on the fly. Anyone old enough who grew up here is probably not too unfamiliar with "Packard Hell". People tend to put names and meanings together as they make sense, this is true in general of how we name things.

Other times it's as simple as a more "playful" take of a name, like the aformentioned "Mickey D's". I have a habit of twisting names to crazy extremes from time to time. God help anyone of you named Craig should you meet me in real life.

You also have racially charged/politically incorrect slang. A tame example would be "fatty-mart". Wal-Mart by itself is a favorite target for who knows how many variations on slang. Given Wal-Mart's general (huge) presence in everyday life here, this is not surprising.

Beyond what you'd expect in things typified in valley girl/surfer dude/west coast, Jersey/east coast/northerner, and southern 'drawl'/hospitality/hick colloquialisms, a good bulk is (arguably) politically incorrect slang. Keep this in mind for realism.

I tend to use archaic/uniqueish slang myself. My brother had a habit of using "stout" to describe really strong characteristics of something (ie pungent smell, strong liquor, etc). I liked it so I have used it from time to time.

Of course, I use many common ones that no one here would raise a brow at: sucks, "that sucks", cool (hopefully self explainatory by now), and a bit of the win, fail, and epic combinations mentioned above. A long time favorite of mine is "awesome"; I've been using it for as long as I can remember.

Furthermore, there's crap and one I apologize for in advance if anyone finds any offense in my stating it (it's not my interest to offend, but to inform and learn): ass. The same goes for some other "tamer" words that people often can't agree on if they are offensive of not. While I'm on the subject, if anyone has a problem with anything I say, please let me know. I am more than reasonable, but if you don't let me know I've offended you, I honestly rarely ever have any idea.

Moving on, you have hell: "What the hell?" In turn, this is what heck stems from. It's the same for geez from Jesus, dang from damn, chrissakes from christ forsakes, etc. Believe me, pick any single word, and you' can find someone who has a particular connotation they assume and expect everyone to understand. I've had a person completely flip out at the joking use of the word 'jerk" once. The person in question overheard a typical sarcastic exchange between me and an old friend, then they proceeded to go completely nuts. There's another bit of slang so commonly ingrained in everyday speech here that you forget it was ever a figure of speech to begin with: "go nuts".

Douche, douchebag, douchenozzle, douche(insert x suffix here) is an interesting piece of slang if you ask me. Partly because it seems to have come into (and remained in) widespread usage in such a relatively short amount of time, but more so because I have a hard time finding two people who have an agreed upon idea of what the slang suggests. In some cases it's entirely contradictory from place to place, group to group.

We have a lot of land here, and things are really spead out. So much that a lot might as well be removed the rest of the world outside their middle of nowhere town. You have places in the US that fit the description of "melting pot of the world" well, but this pales in comparison to the general ability to seclude yourself from most everyone else. You might even come to forget a world exists outside of a visible distance from where you are. With this comes the not so obvious cause/effects relationships smeared by the way of a single, globally recognized, and national identity. It's not unlike the results of any historical massive uprooting of a "people" followed by generations of seclusion from their forefathers.

On a somewhat unrelated tangent, there exists an old Japanese video game called "Pc Genjin". It was a platforming game staring a large, rock hard headed caveman who traversed colorful, prehistoric themed stages. With the goals of defeating the "Evil King Drool" and saving "Princess Za" in mind, "PC Genjin" ensures that everyone can go back to living in peace on the moon at the conclusion of the first game.

It was localized in America as "Bonk's Adventure" (subsequent releases followed suit using Bonk in place of 'PC Genjin'). Bonk simply refers to the action of the protaganist making use of his "massive, indestructable noggin" to defeat "baddies", as well as overcome other obstacles in his path. "Bonk" has been commonly used as onomatopoeia to convey the action of an object striking another in the US for some time, so it made sense while helping to make the game stand out at the same time.

In much of the english speaking populace of europe, my understanding is that the word has a rather lewd connotation. As a result, the even fewer localizations Europe saw undertook the monikers of "PC KId" or "BC Kid". (PC reffering to his home console's name, the "PC Engine", and not the Personal Computer)

A similar example is the strikingly different connotations the word "spaz" has taken due to differing cultural impacts and historical events. If you pay attention to gaming news, this slip has happened at least once in recent years. The most recent happening in memory is the european localization of the first Mario Party 6. (or whatever was the number of the first on the Nintendo Wii)

Here, the word refers to someone who is overly energetic and excited to almost unreasonable ends, generally in a good/humurous way. Its usage as slang and denotation alike suggests that one needs to get ahold of their excitement and calm down. In the UK and probably many areas closeby, it stems from a highly stigmatized, semi/fully official medical term. One that had been used once upon a time to describe someone of apparently inept mental capacities. It's closer to how 'tard and retard are sometimes used in slang here. Anyone who can add to this, or who can see any misunderstandings on my part, please correct me here.

I can also guarantee you that you'll have a hard time convincing most anyone here that "bloody" has ever been anything more that a silly and comedic "very british" term when used as slang. Am I mistaken in believing it's a lot like the etymology of the slang 'crap' here? I mean, in terms of the ever changing perceptions of political correctness.

On the excessive usage of "like" ("so" and "umm" are other common habitual "hiccups" in communicating), I probably have some phrases like that of my own. One common phrase I'll say, only to catch it after the fact is "Let's see", or even, "Let's see here..." Though I think this comes more from when I tend to "think aloud".

Despite growing up in Texas, the accents that surround me daily tend to make me cringe. I'll say everyone/everybody, or take my time to enunciate "you all" for example. I actually don't know of anyone who says "howdy" in a non joking manner, and as far as north (dfw area) texan "hick" accents go, you'll find some VERY animated people. They have some of the most over the top reactions to everything that you can't help but laugh at. The sensible ones are some of the most colorful people you'll find.

I don't care if you say stuff like "ain't" or sound like a "hick". I'm actually on the side of ain't being a legitimate contraction for "am not" longer than most in formal writing/high social status would like to acknowledge/remember. I've been saying this since elementary school: if ain't doesn't follow the standard procedure for acceptable contractions, why do we accept won't over willn't? I still cringe at the thought of using it myself though, go figure. XD

Bottom line: If you want some relatable "American" slang to give characters a believable "flavor", you're sol (sorry out of luck ) without first pinpointing specific demographics that would fit the "feel" you're after. I recommend taking the already suggested advise, and find an american (or ten) online to strike up casual conversation with. Technology allows for many amazing things. While it may not quite be face to face interaction, at least the next best thing is amongst a list of best avaliable options.

Um, I'm a rather odd peep, but I'm American, so...

Ding-bat--idiot, stupid person.
Fawesome/fexcellent/fool--I imagine you can figure out what those mean.
Bat-caver--I know it's an old term, but it stands for people who like Death Metal or whatnot.
Cracker--offensive term for a white person (yeah, really).
Hokey--fake.

If you want more normal stuff, just don't add slang. Most teens avoid it, unless they want to sound like morons or mock people. Or they're myna birds like me and pick up accents and words from just about anything (I've been told I sound British, Australian, Chicagoan, and Southern--and I like curses and insults from all sorts of places*).

(Most teens, if they use slang, say stuff like "cool", "sweet", "awesome", and "peace out". It's annoying, but it's what they say. Constantly. And "weird". They like to call me that. They have no grasp of synonyms. It's sad, really.)

Hope this helps...

*My favorite insults/swears are duff (male idiot), dinny (female idiot), muffin (a weak, oblivious person), and bugger (you know this one, I presume). And a few German words that I won't put here (nary I make a young person's eyes bleed). I also am fond of showing people I can fire a crossbow...