Do you understand your teenager?
When it comes to speaking Aussie, there’s a certain skill that one needs in order to understand the average bloke or Sheila. When we’re taught English, we are taught with proper pronunciations and where to put each and every comma correctly. What we aren’t taught at school but just naturally pick up, is our beautiful Aussie slang, which foreigners often describe as ‘interesting.’ Speaking Aussie teenager, is a whole new world!
Although we are an English speaking country, we are a nation known for shortening, adding a ‘y’ to everything, and of course combining two words into one. The problem with our teenagers these days, is they have outright given words an entirely new meaning.
People have been inventing jargon forever, and while some terms will last forever, ultimately the slang is always shifting, with each and every generation coming up with their own language to use amongst peers. So here at Edstart we thought it would be a great idea to lend you a hand at decoding that teenager living under your roof.
- Bae - Translates into boyfriend, girlfriend, or friend. Eg. "I’ll just be hanging with my bae this afternoon."
- Tuning - This becomes what we know as flirting. Eg. “He’s totally tuning her.”
- Srsly - An abbreviation for seriously.
- Froth/Frothing - This one we fail a bit to understand, but if someone is ‘frothing’ they are getting very excited or super keen.
- “Can’t even” - There are no words to explain it.
- Dude - Now refers to anyone who is either female, male, a friend or foe.
- On fleek - Essentially meaning the next level of perfection. Eg. “Your outfit is on fleek!”
- TBH - To be honest, but the person is too lazy to say all three words.
- Yaaaaaaassssssss - Said to emphasise a real Yes, or something that is ‘out of this world’ fantastic.
- Sweet as - Awesome. The ‘as’ is added simply to give the word emphasis. Other examples of this include lazy as, cute as and slow as.
- Fam - While we typically think this is shorter for family, teenagers use this word when they are referring to their closest friends. So when your teenager tells you they are hanging with the fam, it means their mates, not their brother or sister.
- Slay - This is short for being great at something, and is the shorthand for “slaying.”
- LOL - Laughing Out Loud. Usually used on text messages or Twitter where there is a word restriction per tweet.
- PAW - This is a good one to be aware of. PAW means Parents Are Watching, so who your teen is texting won’t write anything incriminating.
There are countless more that we could list for you, but the words and slangs listed above should be able to help you understand your teens just that little bit better. There are certainly some that have left us a bit confused.