Jamaican Patois Words and Phrases, With Meanings

Alphabetical lists of Patois are useless on a trip. Nobody needs ackee before hello. So these Jamaican Patois words come in the order you'd need them, starting in the queue at Sangster airport in Montego Bay, and the first three are the ones I'd learn on the plane.

Spelling's a free-for-all, by the way. Yuh, yu, you. Likkle, lickle. Even the language's own name flips between Patois and Patwa. I went with whatever people type on WhatsApp.

Hello, Goodbye and Everything Between

Patois	What it means
Wah gwaan	What's up, how are you
Mi deh yah	I'm here, I'm doing fine
Mi good, man	I'm good
Weh yuh deh?	Where are you?
Soon come	I'm on my way (eventually)
Likkle more	See you later
Walk good	Take care, safe travels
Bless up	Blessings, take it easy
Big up	Respect, a shout-out
Respect	Hello, thanks, goodbye, all in one

Walk good is my favourite on the whole list. It's what someone says as you leave, and it feels warmer than "bye" by a mile. Then there's respect. Hello and bye in one word, often inside the same thirty seconds outside a rum shop, while somebody's dominoes clack on a table nearby.

People Words

Patois	What it means
Bredda	Brother, or a close male friend
Sista	Sister, or a close female friend
Bredren	Your friends, your crew
Pickney	Child
Gyal	Girl
Bwoy	Boy
Yute	A young person
Mumma / Puppa	Mom / Dad
Unu	You all

Unu is the one English badly needs. It does the job of y'all, without anyone from Texas getting involved.

Food Words You'll Want on Day One

Patois	What it means
Nyam	Eat
Ackee and saltfish	The national dish, ackee fruit cooked with salt cod
Festival	A sweet fried dumpling
Bammy	A flat cassava bread
Bun and cheese	Spiced bun with cheese, a big Easter thing
Food	Often means starchy sides like yam and green banana

That last row trips people up. Ask what comes with your jerk chicken and you might hear "rice and peas and food," where food means boiled yam, dumpling and green banana. Not a joke. Just a different idea of what counts as food, and a very filling one.

Feelings and Reactions

Patois	What it means
Irie	Good, happy, all is well
Cho!	Ugh, annoyed noise
Mi vex	I'm angry
Mi tired	I'm tired
Labba-labba	Chatty, talks too much
Pree	To watch, to think about
Tek time	Be careful, take it easy
Small up yuhself	Make some room, squeeze in

Small up yourself is what you'll hear on a crowded route taxi, when a fifth person needs to fit in a seat built for three. I'd put it on a T-shirt.

Words That Crossed the Atlantic

Plenty of it crossed the Atlantic in chains. Enslaved Africans on the sugar estates kept bits of Igbo, Twi and other languages going underneath the overseers' English. Unu lines up with the Igbo word for you all. Nyam means eat in more than one West African language. Both are still in daily use three centuries on, which I find a bit staggering.

Stories came over as well. Anansi, the trickster spider from Akan folktales in what's now Ghana, became Bredda Anancy in Jamaica, and grandparents still tell those stories to kids at bedtime. Duppy means ghost. It's old too. Plenty of Jamaicans will tell you not to whistle at night in case one hears you.

Where I'd Use These, and Where I'd Hold Back

Greetings are safe. Nobody minds a tourist trying. A wah gwaan to the woman selling patties, or a walk good to your taxi driver, will usually get a smile. Food words are safe too, since you need them anyway.

I'd hold back on doing a full accent at people, though. A visitor stringing ten Patois words together in a put-on voice can come off like a joke at Jamaica's expense, even if you mean well. Two or three words, used right, go a long way. Let the locals do the rest.

Is Jamaican Patois a Language?

Yes. Linguists call it a creole: mostly English words, running on grammar of its own. Swap the words but keep English grammar and you'll still sound like a tourist. "Mi tired" has no am in it. "Mi a go" is I'm going. Stick dem on a noun and you get more than one, so di pickney dem means the kids, all of them, probably being loud.

For a long time, schools in Jamaica treated it as broken English. Louise Bennett-Coverley, known as Miss Lou, spent her career proving otherwise, performing poems and folk stories in Patois on stage and radio until the whole island was quoting her. By 2012 the Bible Society of the West Indies had published the books from Matthew to Revelation in Patois, which some pastors cheered and others hated. Wikipedia's page on Jamaican Patois covers the history in far more depth than I can here.

London picked a lot of it up, too. Wagwan, ting and bare all came into Multicultural London English through Jamaican families, which is why a teenager in Hackney might greet you like someone from Kingston. If you want to try it out, our Jamaican Patois Translator turns English into Patwa and back again, and the British Slang Translator covers the London side.

Patois Words People Ask About

What does wah gwaan mean? What's going on. Hi and how-you-doing in two words. Reply "mi deh yah" and you're fine.

What's Jamaican slang for friend? Bredda, if it's a guy. For a woman, sista. A whole crew is your bredren, and plain old fren works in a pinch.

What does irie mean? Good. Calm, happy, sorted. Tourist T-shirts have worn it out a bit, but you'll still hear it from locals.

What does likkle more mean? See you later. Likkle is little, so it's really "a little more" time until we meet again. Say it on your way out of a party in Ocho Rios and somebody will grin.

Is Jamaican Patois English? Not quite. Turn on the evening news in Kingston and you'll hear standard English in a Jamaican voice. Patois bends the grammar, and most folks flip between the two before lunch.

Are there Patois words I shouldn't use? Yes. A few famous swear words, which I've left out here on purpose. If a local laughs nervously when you say something, stop saying it.