Jamaican Patois: Slang, Words and Phrases, Explained by a Local

Land in Jamaica and you’ll hear two languages at once. The immigration officer, the hotel check-in and the tour briefing will be in English. The taxi driver talking to his friend, the vendor calling across the market and the people laughing at the next table will be in Jamaican, which most of us call Patois or Patwa. I grew up switching between the two without thinking about it, like most Jamaicans. This guide covers the greetings, everyday words, slang and sayings you’ll actually hear, what they mean, and how to use a few without getting it wrong.

What Jamaican Patois is

Patois is the everyday language of Jamaica. Linguists call it Jamaican Creole, or simply Jamaican, and Jamaicans call it Patwa. Most of its words come from English, while its sounds and grammar also carry the West African languages, such as Akan and Kikongo, spoken by enslaved people brought to the island. That’s why you’ll catch some words and miss the rest. It has its own rules, so it isn’t “broken English”, and Jamaicans don’t like hearing it called that. Around three million people speak it, in Jamaica and in big communities in the US, Canada and the UK.

English is still the official language, used in government, schools and the courts. The Jamaican Language Unit at the University of the West Indies, Mona, was set up in 2002 partly because many Jamaicans are more at home in Patwa than in English, the language state services are normally given in. In the unit’s island-wide survey of 1,000 people, 79.5% said Jamaican is a language, and 78.6% described themselves as speakers of both Jamaican and English. Only about one in ten said they speak Jamaican alone.

Patois also isn’t the same everywhere. People in the west, from Westmoreland to St. James, say some things differently from people in Kingston, and how close someone speaks to English depends on the setting, their age and who they’re talking to. Where a word or meaning varies, this guide says so.

How Patois is spelled

There’s no spelling everyone uses. Most people write Patois the way it sounds, using English spelling as a guide, so you’ll see “wah gwaan”, “wha gwan” and “wagwan” for the same greeting. Linguists use the Cassidy-JLU system, a phonetic spelling first proposed by the linguist Frederic Cassidy and adapted by the Jamaican Language Unit: “pikni” for pickney, “likl” for likkle, “kyaahn” for cyaan. It’s the system used for the Jamaican New Testament, but on signs, in songs and in text messages you’ll mostly see the everyday spelling. This guide uses the common spelling and gives the Cassidy-JLU spelling in brackets where it helps.

Pronunciation basics

A few patterns explain most of what sounds unfamiliar. Once you know them, a lot of Patois turns out to be English words you already know.

• “Th” becomes “t” or “d”. “Think” is “tink”, “three” is “tree”, “this” is “dis”, “the” is “di”, “brother” is “bredda”.
• “-er” at the end becomes “-a”. “Water” is “wata”, “mother” is “madda”, “better” is “betta”.
• Final consonants often drop. “Hand” is “han”, “left” is “lef”, “cold” is “col”, “just” is “jus”.
• A “y” slips in after k and g. “Can’t” is “cyaan”, “girl” is “gyal”, “car” is “cyar”, “garden” is “gyaadn”.
• Long vowels change. “Face” sounds like “fiece”, “boat” like “buot”, and “talk” and “walk” are “taak” and “waak”.
• The “h” moves around. In much of the island “h” is dropped or added, so “house” can be “ouse” and “egg” can be “hegg”. People in the west tend to keep it where English has it.
• “-ing” becomes “-in”. “Nothing” is “nutten”, “something” is “sumting” or “sinting”.

Grammar in five minutes

• Pronouns: mi (I, me, my), yuh (you), im (he, she, it), wi (we), unu (you all), dem (they). “Im” covers he, she and it, which trips up visitors.
• Verbs don’t change. “Mi go, yuh go, im go.” Time comes from small words in front: “mi a go” (I’m going), “mi did go” (I went), “mi wi go” (I will go). In the west you’ll hear “mi de go” for “I’m going” and “mi wehn go” for “I went”.
• Plurals use “dem”. “Di pickney dem” is the children; “di dog dem” is the dogs.
• “Nuh” makes it negative. “Mi nuh know” (I don’t know), “nuh worry” (don’t worry). “Nah” is “won’t” or “am not”: “mi nah go” (I’m not going).
• Questions often rise in tone instead of changing word order: “Yuh eat?” means “Have you eaten?”

Greetings: how to say hello, what’s up and goodbye

If you learn only one section, make it this one. A greeting matters in Jamaica: walking up to someone and asking a question without saying “mawnin” first comes across as rude, especially to older people.

A typical exchange between two friends passing on the road: “Wah gwaan, yuh good?” “Yeah man, mi deh yah. Yuh?” “Mi deh yah. Likkle more.” That’s “Hi, you OK?” “Yes, I’m fine. You?” “Fine. See you later.”

Everyday phrases

Jamaican words A to Z: a glossary of 97 common words

These are everyday words, the ones you’ll hear in a shop, on the radio or across a yard, with a natural example of each. Slang that changes with the times, and words that mean something different from the English, have their own sections below.

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Jamaican slang you’ll hear today

Slang moves fast in Jamaica, mostly through dancehall. A word that is everywhere in Kingston this year can sound dated next year, and young people and their grandparents won’t always use the same words. These are widely understood right now.

Rastafari words

Rastafari speech, sometimes called Iyaric, has shaped everyday Patois. You’ll hear “I and I” for “we” or “me” (stressing the unity of people and God), “Jah” for God, “ital” for natural food, “livity” for a righteous way of life, “overstand” for understand, and “Babylon” for a corrupt system, and sometimes for the police. Our guide to understanding Rastafari explains where these come from.

Words with tricky meanings for visitors

These look like English but mean something different, or more than you’d expect. They’re the ones most likely to cause a puzzled look.

A note on color words like “red”, “browning” and “brownin”: Jamaicans use them freely to describe each other, but they carry a history. As a visitor, describe people some other way.

Phrases for the market, the taxi and the beach

Vendors, drivers and beach staff will speak English to you, but a little Patois softens things and often gets a laugh. These are the ones worth having ready.

If you want to taste your way through the menu words, roadside cookshop names like festival, bammy, run dung and bag juice are explained in our guide to Jamaican food.

Jamaican proverbs and sayings

Every Jamaican grows up with these, usually from a grandmother. They come out when someone needs advice or a telling-off, and quoting one at the right moment will impress any Jamaican.

How to use Patois as a visitor

Ask any Jamaican and they’ll tell you the same thing: a few words, said warmly, go down well. A full Patois performance from a visitor usually doesn’t.

• Start with greetings. “Mawnin”, “wah gwaan”, “respect” and “walk good” will get a smile anywhere.
• Use your own voice. Say the words in your normal accent. Putting on a Jamaican accent can come across as mockery, even when it’s meant kindly.
• Ask what something means. Jamaicans love explaining their sayings, and asking is the fastest way to learn.
• Expect English when it matters. Anyone working with visitors will switch to English for you. If you didn’t catch something, ask them to say it again.
• Mind your elders. Older people use and expect more formal greetings: “Mawnin, Miss” or “Evenin, Sah” is always right.
• Listen to the music. Reggae and dancehall are full of Patois. Jamaican radio is the easiest way to tune your ear before you land.

Strong words and curse words

Patois has a rich set of curse words, and the strongest are as offensive as anything in English. Many end in “-claat”, from “cloth”. You’ll hear them in arguments and in some songs, and “rawtid” is a milder exclamation that comes from the same family. Using indecent language in public can even get you charged under Jamaican law. We’ve put the full explanation, with what each word means, how strong it is and why visitors shouldn’t use them, in a separate guide to Jamaican patois curse words and insults.

Miss Lou and the respect Patois has earned

For a long time Patois was treated as something to be corrected at school. A lot of the change in how Jamaicans see their own language comes from Louise Bennett-Coverley, Miss Lou, the poet, performer and folklorist whom the Jamaica Information Service credits as a champion of the Jamaican dialect. Her books, including Jamaica Labrish (1966), and her radio and TV work used Patois to tell Jamaican stories with humor, in defiance of the social pressure of her time. Every Jamaican child still knows some of her lines.

Today you’ll hear Patois on Jamaican radio, in ads and from every generation. To hear it at its liveliest, spend time where Jamaicans spend time: a market, a cookshop, a Sunday beach. Our introduction to Jamaican people and culture covers the rest of daily life, the myths and legends guide explains duppies and rolling calf, and if music brought you here, the Bob Marley Museum in Kingston is where to go. For more ideas, see our things to do in Jamaica guide.