South Africa, the Rainbow Nation. Not only are we a people of colour, culture and diversity – we are a nation of multiple languages too. Here we speak a mixture of English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, Xhosa, the list goes on! Throughout the times we have developed our very own slang words/sayings too. This slang often gets a you a blank stare and lost look from “outsiders” – I have to admit, some of it really is quite nonsensical, but it’s our own! 

Get to know South Africa, be cool and adopt our lingo – be lekker (good) like that! 

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10 Things South Africans Say That Might Confuse You  

1. Just now. 

If a South African says this, don’t expect to get your request immediately. I’ll do it just now means that it will be done in 5 minutes, a couple of hours, or perhaps even next week. It’s pretty much our way of saying it will get done, without a definite timeline.   

2. Ja, Nee or Ja, No (Yes, No) 

These are Afrikaans words and they are often used in succession to express agreement or to confirm something, despite the fact that they actually contradict each other. 

Example: Ja nee, I’m doing ok thanks”.    

3. Robot. 

When we refer to “robots”, we are most likely not talking about computerized human-like machines. Robots are what we call Traffic Lights.   

4. Klap (an Afrikaans word pounced as kl-up) 

No “clapping” done here! It literally means “to give someone a smack”. In South Africa this word is used quite often, woops! It gets more serious too – you get a snotklap, which is taken from the mental image of actually smacking someone so hard that you see the snot fly out of them!   

5. Braai (a BBQ as it is more commonly known around the world) 

Pronounced br-eye. 

Braaing is one our favourite pass times where we cook food over a coal or wood fire outdoors.   

6. Haibo, Haw and Eish 

These are all words used to express surprise or confusion. 

Haibo (pronounced hi-boh) – “Haibo, did you see that skelm (thief)!” 

Haw (pronounced how) – “Haw, very interesting!” 

Eish (pronounced eesh) – “Eish, did you see that car go!”   

7. Jol (a party) 

Anything fun is referred to as a “jol”. Pronounced j-all.   

8. Muti (medicine) 

Muti is taken from the Zulu language and is mostly used when addressed to children, instead of using the more formal sounding word “medicine’.  

It is pronounced as moo-tee.     

9. Sho?/! (basically means, is that so? Or, wow!) 

Example: Statement - “I’m currently training to run a marathon” 

Response – “Sho, that’s cool!”   

10. Ag (pronounced ach) 

This is pretty much a filler word that can be used in a variety of contexts. 

Examples: 

“Ag, we had a good weekend.” 

“Ag shame, look at the poor dog” 

“Ag, he’ll be ok!” 

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Us South Africans have evolved to incorporate many other languages into our day to day words and phrases, sometime we have merged the languages so much that completely new words have evolved! This is just another example of how diverse our country is, and how much fun and unique our people are!  

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