5 Slang Expressions in English Grammar

You study and study and study, until you finally think that you have the level of go to England and speak to the locals. And then what happens? You don’t understand a word, because all they do is use slang expressions that aren’t in your textbooks. 

Slang refers to colloquial English, which is used in informal contexts in everyday English. If you want to have a super level of English, you will need to understand and use these expressions, and most importantly know when and when not to use them! 

In this article we are going to look at 5 grammatical slang expressions, which are used all the time in spoken English, and which are extremely important if you want to understand native English speakers when that talk to you.

 

1. Ain’t = am not, is not, are not, have not, has not

We use ain’t as a negative contraction of the verb to be or to have.

 

Examples:

I ain’t saying anything =  (I am not)

You ain’t seen mine yet = (You have not)

He ain’t a bad person = (He is not)

We ain’t got any point = (We have not)

They ain’t a bad team = (They are not)

 

Important: We only use ain’t instead of have not when have is used as an auxiliary verb, and not as the main verb in a sentence. Therefore we can not say ‘I ain’t a brother’ instead of ‘I haven’t a brother’. If you said this, we would understand ‘I am not a brother’.

 

 

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2. Innit = isn’t it

Innit is an expression that means isn’t it. However, certain people use it instead of almost every question tag.

Important: Innit is only used as a question tag.

 

Examples:

Germany’s bigger than France, innit?

Nice day, innit?

Innit incredible that there were so many people there?

 

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3. Woulda / Shoulda / Coulda  = would have / should have / could have

This expressions are used in the 3rd conditional.  When you learn the 3rd conditional, you learn this structure:

 

       If  +   had  +  past participle   |   would have  +  past participle

           E.g. If Messi had played,       Barça would have won

 

However, if you speak with a native English speaker, they will almost always say woulda instead of would have. Similarly, you will almost always hear shoulda instead of should have, and coulda instead of could have.

When possible, we always use contractions in spoken English, so instead of the above example, you would usually hear the following:

                  If Messi’d played, Barça woulda won.

 

 

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4. Gotta = got to

Gotta is a word that means got to in the expressions have got to. 

In the examples below we can sometimes we can omit have. When using the third person, however, we cannnot omit have. 

 

Examples:

I’ve gotta go to China  /  I gotta go to China.

You’ve gotta come with me  /  You gotta come with me.

He’s gotta visit his mum so he can’t go.

We’ve gotta buy a present   /   We gotta…

They’ve gotta bring a cake.

 

 

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5. Wanna = want to

Wanna is a contraction of want + to.

Common mistake: Wanna does not mean ‘wants to’ (3rd person), and does not mean simply ‘want’ (without ‘to’). Wanna must be followed by an infinitive verb.

 

Examples:

I wanna be famous

Do you wanna cook or shall I?

John wants to go to the party, but Sara doesn’t wanna drive.

We wanna see the game.

They don’t wanna speak. They just wanna listen.

 

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