How to understand Australians | Slang Words & Expressions

Ah Australia, the largest island in the world. The smallest continent. A big rock. And a very beautiful port. You should definitely visit it if you have the chance. You absolutely should. I'm Emma from mmmEnglish and I'm also Australian. Here on YouTube, you always ask me where I'm from, so I guess I don't say it enough. But here in Australia we speak English with a distinctly Australian accent that has some unique characteristics, some similar to British English and others more closely aligned with American English pronunciation. But most people who come to visit, whether they speak English or not, are confused or dumbfounded, surprised by our

slang

vocabulary.

So in this video, I'll share forty

slang

expressions

you need to know if you're planning to move here, visit here, study here or even if you're just hanging out with some Aussies somewhere else in the world. This lesson will help you reveal that mysterious secret slang that Australians use to communicate. First a little history lesson. Australia is a British colony, so our grammar and spelling rules are the same as British English and that means they are a little different from American English. Our sense of humor is also quite similar to the British, even some of our slang

words

are the same.

That sense of humor is dry, sarcastic. Sometimes it can take a little getting used to, especially because with sarcasm, it often involves saying one thing, but the tone and body language are completely opposite, you know, like a joke that's told with a completely straight face, like this. It's really hard to tell if they're actually joking or not. We're generally pretty calm people, you know, we definitely don't take ourselves too seriously. In fact, we usually laugh at ourselves, make fun of our peers, and joke around. So in Australia, if an Australian makes fun of you, it very often means that he really likes you, it's a strange way of showing affection.

The best thing you can do is make an Australian laugh, you will be companions for life. Now a partner is a friend, right? This is one of the most important

words

for an Australian. It's usually a term of endearment, you know, meaning friend, but companion can also be your partner, your brother, your sister, your son, your daughter, your friend, your colleague, and a companion can also be a complete stranger. Anyone can be called a companion, right? Friend, how are you? Great, I'll see you later buddy. He's super friendly. But with a change in tone, it can also be used to confront someone about an issue.

Listen, buddy, we need to talk about this. Dude, calm down, I'm not trying to start an argument. In fact, Australian police often approach any situation and start with "Hey buddy", like buddy, chill out. I'm here to help. Now that I know this concept of partner and partner, it could be really confusing, right? But try to use facial expression and tone as a guide, you know, is he friendly? Is it serious? If you're doing something wrong and someone comes up to you and says, "Dude, what do you think you're doing?" You know, they're angry and that's Australian for upset.

Now many slang words in Australia follow a very similar pattern. You take the original word, shorten it, and then add EEE, AHH, or OH to the end. Now this is very, very common. These words are commonly used throughout Australia, at all levels of society. You will hear the Prime Minister use these words along with a truck driver crossing the Nullarbor, which is the large expanse of land in the center of Australia. There are literally hundreds of fun words like this and it can be really intimidating to try to learn them, but the ones I include in this video are the ones that I use regularly, the ones that I hear people use, my friends, my peers, my family.

They use them all the time. Or those that appear regularly in the media because they are all relevant and current slang words to learn, right? And if you look up Australian slang on a bunch of websites, it can be quite fun to read all these random words, but not many of them are actually used anymore, you know, they're from a few decades ago. back. In Australia we are big fans of football, but not this type of football, which is soccer. This is Australian rules football, soccer. Now I want you to pay close attention to the T sound on the fin, it sounds more like a D, right?

Soccer. If you're moving to Melbourne in particular, one of the first things you'll need to do is pick a soccer team. Well, you'll probably get this question a lot. So get involved, go to a couple of games, even if it's just to say you did it, it's a really good place to start

understand

ing Australian culture. Barbie is a barbecue. Hooks, sausages. Arvo, afternoon. We'll take some jabs at Barbie on Saturday! Come. And that really means we're going to cook some sausages on the barbecue on Saturday afternoon, come on. Avo, avocado. Brekkie, breakfast. Avo on toast is a very common breakfast in cafes in Australia.

It seemed to be the reason why young Australians can't save enough money to buy a house because they keep spending all their money on going out for breakfast and eating avocado toast. So avocado is something very common for breakfast. It's definitely common at brunch too. Now brunch is a meal between breakfast and lunch, common in Australia but also in other English-speaking countries. Now, it is not a complement to those meals, it usually replaces one or the other. Usually on weekends when many people sleep in, they may wake up later. So on Saturdays and Sundays in Australia you would definitely see a lot of people going out for lunch on the weekend.

Alright, let's talk about some places now. That's why McDonald's is called Maccas. Now, if someone asks you to do a Maccas run, it means go out, pick up McDonald's and bring it to everyone. Or you could say "I'm waiting on the corner near Maccas." Now university is university, university. What did you study at uni? How is college going? This is incredibly common. If you plan to study in Australia, the only time you'll hear the word "university" will be in a formal context. Everyone else will talk about college. So that's college. The servo is a service station or a gas station.

Now, in the United States, the fuel in your car is called gasoline, but in Australia you don't hear people call it gasoline. We call it gasoline. So this place is a gas station or service station, a place to service your car, hence the servo. I need to stop at the servo on the way. It means I have to stop and get gas. The bottle. The bottle-o is a bottle shop or liquor store, a store that sells alcohol. In Australia, where you can buy alcohol is strictly regulated, so you can't buy alcohol at a 7-Eleven like you can in some countries.

You have to go to the bottle shop, to the bottle-o. Hey, I'm stopping at the bottle on the way, let me know if you need me to pick anything up. Now while we're on the subject, Australians love to have a drink and one of the best places to sit and watch Australian life is in a pub, on the beach or at the pub. It's a really social space and a great space to strike up a conversation with someone and chat. But I wanted to share a few more words that you may need. So a slab is a carton of beer, usually a twenty-four pack of beers in a box.

A can is a can of beer. A chubby is a beer bottle. And a stubby cooler, one of these horrible things, is used to keep your stubby or little one cold during the long, hot Australian summers. These are tourist souvenirs that you can get at any servo, anywhere in Australia and you can collect all the ugliest ones you can find and keep them as souvenirs of your time in Australia. This one is from Nanutarra Road House. It has a goanna, a road train and an eagle. Every Australian has at least twenty of them scattered in random places around his house and, generally, the flashier, uglier the better.

And an esky is what you need to bring to the park to keep your drinks and food cool, so it's like an insulated box where you put ice and keep your drinks cool, that's an esky. Lotto is the lottery. The most I've ever won on a lottery ticket is about fifty dollars. And dollars is slang for dollars. If I take an Uber from the city, it usually costs me about thirty dollars. Ripper is a good expression when something is going well or good like "ah ripper!" You could say "Little Ripper!" when something is really good. You have great news.

Or you could say "Damn Ripper!" when something is really cool, like when you win the lottery. Damn ripper! What a great day! In Australia, many, many, many suburbs and place names are also shortened. So Brissie is Brisbane. Tassie is Tasmania Sandy is Sandringham. Freo is Fremantle. Rotto is the Rottnest Island in WA. The Goldie is Queensland's Gold Coast. The G is the MCG, Melbourne's famous sporting ground. And if there are any Aussies watching and you can think of others, let me know in the comments and get back to me. There are so many of these that the list is too long to continue here.

But the point is, if you hear a word you don't recognize, it's totally okay to ask, you know? Australians know that not everyone

understand

s our slang, which refers to things, especially place names. So if you're not sure, just ask. Another really important place is the toilet, the toilet. The dunny used to be a very Australian expression, but is now rarely used. Many random Australian slang websites include it because it's fun, but don't bother learning and using it. Nobody does it. Therefore, people who participate in construction work are often called tradesmen. They are the qualified people who also come to your house to fix things when they break.

Now, in Australia, of course, we've shortened all these people's names. Starting with tradition. Now Tradie is a merchant. It is a very general word for everyone who works in that type of industry. But specifically a bricklayer is a bricklayer. A sparkie is an electrician. A chippie is a carpenter. And this continues in all other types of work as well. A trucker is a trucker. A cop is a politician and you will often hear this in the Australian media when talking about politicians. A sick day is a sick day. But it's not a real sick day. I don't know if this happens a lot in your country, but an illness is when you take a day off from work but you're not actually sick.

Maybe it's because the weather is really good and you want to go fishing with your mates. This is called throwing a sick or throwing a sick. What else is there? Information is information. The introduction is the introduction. And I think those two are used quite frequently in a lot of different English-speaking countries, but in Australia we definitely love it because we love those shortened versions. Oh my, the mustache. A roo is a kangaroo. Mozzie is a mosquito. I hate those guys! For some reason, they always come after me, so I always carry mosquito spray wherever I go in the summer.

This insect repellent is called mosquito spray in Australia. Anyway, this is a solid list of relevant Australian slang words to learn and even if you don't use them yourself, simply becoming familiar with them will help you understand Australian native English speakers much more easily. Now you might even be able to think of others, so let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas and suggestions. But also if you have some questions about how these words are used regularly or maybe you've heard of another slang word and aren't sure what it means or if it's commonly used, let me know in the comments.

I'll be happy to jump in and answer your questions there. Now I know you're unlikely to be traveling to Australia anytime soon, but if you want to follow me on my Australian adventures, be sure to check out my Instagram account here. I'll be heading north on a camping trip in a couple of months and I'm so excited to share my beautiful country with you and take you along for the ride, so come check it out if you want to join us. Otherwise, see you in the next lesson. I see you there!