This means 'It is so' or 'I concur/ is that so?įor instance, you could ask: ‘No so dem dey fry meat, abi? It means: 'The shade of green on this bag is lemon green, right?’ Na so/Na so? Sometimes we switch it with ‘e be like magic.’ Abi?įor example, if you're shopping for lemons you might say: ‘Dis bag na lemon green e be, abi?’ 'di way wey di car tumble ern, e be like film!’ meaning ‘the way the car tumbled was just like in the movies, or incredible.’ This phrase is used to express incredulity, especially when reporting a scenario, movie or circumstance.įor instance, a person reporting an accident that happened quickly could say: It means, ‘Are you sure of what you are saying? This doesn’t seem true.’ E be like film The situation or topic is either suspicious or untrue.įor instance, one could say: ‘You sure of dis tin wey you dey talk so? Dis matter get k-leg.’ You can also say 'Dis food sweet no be small.' K-leg This phrase means 'This meal is delicious'. When you hear, 'You don chop up?' the speaker means 'You are prospering or have put on some weight.' Dis food sweet well, well To show that you are extremely hungry, you can say: So 'I wan Chop' or 'I dey H' means 'I want to eat' or 'I am hungry.' Unlike the English word, 'chop' which implies that something is being sliced or hacked in pidgin it means 'food'. This is pidgin for 'How are you?' With friends, you can also say: It doesn't threaten any linguistic or cultural heritage, but rather binds us. Our safe place is Nigerian Pidgin: our common language. This can make speakers of other languages uncomfortable.

Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba languages are our national languages because they are spoken by the majority. Consequently, my siblings also learned languages and married speakers of other languages. My father also moved our family around by working in different states, until he settled in Abuja when I was born. My aunties married and introduced new languages into the family. This exposed them to different linguistic environments now they speak between three and six languages. My maternal grandfather, Sergeant Afa, was a soldier whose family of 11 moved from barrack to barrack. It is the one language that binds us all. Just remember to add a little bit of pidgin to yours and you will be fine. If you are visiting Nigeria, don't be daunted by the 520 languages in our repertoire.

Author Mimi Werna has put together her 20 favourite phrases in Nigerian Pidgin.

Pidgin west africa