Jamaican Patois phrases, grouped by when you would actually say them

A Jamaican Patois phrase is rarely an English sentence with the spelling changed. It is a fixed piece of speech that belongs to a situation — a greeting, a refusal, a price being argued down — and most of the ones you will need are three words long. This page gathers more than a hundred of them, grouped by the situation you would actually use them in.

Every group opens with the part a list on its own cannot give you: who says this, to whom, and what it signals. Two spellings are given for each phrase. The first is how Patois gets written between people, in a message or a caption. The second is Cassidy/JLU, a phonemic system in which one letter always makes one sound, so you never have to guess a pronunciation from an English-looking spelling.

The eight phrases that do the most work

If you take nothing else from this page, take these. They are not the eight most interesting phrases in the language. They are the eight that recur across the widest range of situations, which is a different measure and a far more useful one for somebody with limited time.

The eight highest-frequency phrases on this page

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English	Word for word
Wah gwaan?	wa gwaan	What is happening	what going-on
Mi deh yah	mi de ya	I am here — I am fine	I there here
Yes mi dear	yes mi dier	Yes, of course — a warm agreement
Mi soon come	mi suun kom	I will be back shortly
Nuff respec	nof rispek	Much respect
Likkle more	likl muor	See you later	little more
Walk gud	waak gud	Take care	walk good
Big up yuhself	big op yuself	Well done — respect to you

Notice how few of them are statements. One is a greeting and one is the reply to it, two are farewells, two hand somebody else their due, one is an agreement and one is a promise about time that nobody intends to keep precisely. That balance is not an accident of selection. A large share of everyday Patois speech is doing social work rather than transferring information, and the phrases that carry that work are the ones that repeat.

Notice also how short they are. English politeness lengthens a sentence; Patois keeps it short and puts the warmth in the delivery and in a term of address. If you are building a long polite sentence, you are translating rather than speaking.

Greeting somebody, and getting away again

Greeting is not optional in Jamaica, and that is the first adjustment most visitors fail to make. You greet the people already in a shop, a waiting room, a yard or a minibus, and you do it first if you are the one arriving. Skipping it does not read as reserve; it reads as rudeness, and it is noticed.

The time-of-day forms are the safest thing in the language. They work with an elder, a stranger, an official and a friend without adjustment, and nobody is thought rude for using one. The peer greetings underneath them carry more familiarity and expect a reply.

Openings and farewells, from the formal to the familiar

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English	Word for word
Gud mawnin	gud maanin	Good morning
Gud aftanoon	gud aftanuun	Good afternoon
Gud evenin	gud iivnin	Good evening
Wah gwaan?	wa gwaan	What is happening	what going-on
Wah di scene?	wa di siin	What is the situation
Weh yuh deh pon?	we yu de pan	What are you up to	where you there on
How yuh do?	hou yu du	How do you do
Bless up	bles op	Blessings on you — greeting or parting
Likkle more	likl muor	See you later	little more
Walk gud	waak gud	Take care on your way
Lata	lata	Later
Mi gaan	mi gaan	I am off

Two of the farewells are not interchangeable, and mixing them up is a common small mistake. One of them can be said by whoever is going and means roughly until next time. The other is said to the person leaving, by the one staying, and carries a charge of care closer to travel safely. Say the second to a friend walking twenty metres to the next shop and it lands as gently comic; say it to someone setting off on a long journey and it is exactly right. The whole set, arranged by the hour of the day, is in our guide to Patois greetings.

Asking how somebody is, and answering when they ask you

The greeting most visitors meet first is a question, which means the reply matters more than the greeting does. Standing there having recognised the phrase and produced nothing is worse than not being greeted at all, so the answers below are worth more of your attention than the openers above.

Most of them are deliberately non-committal. A full account of your week is not what the question asks for, in the same way that an English how are you does not really ask. Two or three words, delivered without hesitation, is the whole target.

Enquiries, and the replies that actually get used

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English	Word for word
How yuh feel?	hou yu fiil	How are you feeling
Everyting criss	evriting kris	Everything is fine
Mi deh yah	mi de ya	I am here, keeping on	I there here
Same way	siem wie	Much the same
Mi deh bout	mi de bout	I am around
Nutten nuh gwaan	notn no gwaan	Nothing much is happening
Mi cool	mi kuul	I am fine
Tings a run	tings a ron	Things are ticking along
Mi nuh too good	mi no tuu gud	I am not doing too well
Mi soon come	mi suun kom	I will be back shortly

The greeting that prompts most of these replies has enough behind it to need a page of its own — who it is for, who it is not for, and the four or five ways it gets spelled. The short version is that it is peer-to-peer and informal. To someone much older than you, or to an official across a desk, a time-of-day greeting does the job with none of the risk.

Agreeing, refusing and doubting

These are the phrases that keep a conversation moving, and they are where a learner most often stalls. You can follow what is being said, you agree with it, and you have nothing short to say back — so you say nothing, and the exchange dies. A one-word agreement is worth more here than a long sentence you had to assemble first.

Refusal in Patois tends to be direct in form and soft in delivery. There is no elaborate hedging apparatus. The bluntness lives in the words and the courtesy lives in the tone, which is the reverse of the English arrangement and takes some getting used to.

Agreement, refusal, and the sound of not being convinced

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English	Word for word
True	chruu	That is right
A so it go	a so it guo	That is how it is	is so it go
Mi gree	mi grii	I agree
Nuh true?	no chruu	Isn't that so — a tag question
Fi real?	fi riil	Seriously
Yuh mean it?	yu miin it	Do you mean that
Mi nuh know	mi no nuo	I do not know
Mi nuh believe yuh	mi no biliiv yu	I do not believe you
Nuh badda	no bada	Do not bother
Mi cyaahn manage	mi kyaahn manij	I cannot manage that

The first row is a small demonstration of why this page carries two spellings. Written the everyday way, the word looks exactly like its English source. The phonemic column tells you the truth: the initial cluster is not the English one, and a speaker saying it as an English speaker would is audibly saying a different word. That single sound change accounts for a surprising share of what makes fluent Patois hard to catch, and it is unpicked in why Patois is spelled two ways.

Getting attention without being rude

The phrases below are all short, and shortness is not rudeness here. Getting somebody's attention across a shop or a road is done with one syllable and a raised hand, and the politeness is carried by what follows rather than by an elaborate approach.

The exception is age. To an older stranger, an opener that is ordinary between peers can land badly; a time-of-day greeting followed by your request is the safe move.

Calling somebody, asking a favour, saying thank you

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Yow	you	Hey — a call across a space
Excuse mi	ekskyuuz mi	Excuse me
Beg yuh	beg yu	Please — literally, I beg you
Beg yuh a favour	beg yu a fieva	Could you do something for me
Tank yuh	tangk yu	Thank you
Nuff tanks	nof tangks	Many thanks
Sorry fi dat	sari fi dat	Sorry about that
Sorry, mi neva mean it	sari mi neva miin it	Sorry, I did not mean to

The courtesies deserve more than one line each, because the Patois for please is not a single word and the Patois for sorry splits into an apology and a condolence. All of that is worked through in thank you, please and sorry.

On the road, and asking where things are

Directions are where a visitor's Patois gets tested first, because a route taxi is a conversation and not a transaction. The driver will ask where you are headed and expects an answer with the same speed and brevity that everything else in the vehicle runs on.

Two of the phrases below do more work than the rest. One is the general request for a location, covering where, whereabouts and which way at once. The other is how you stop a vehicle, and it is worth having ready before you need it.

Getting about, and stopping when you get there

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Which paat?	wich paat	Whereabouts — which way
Ova deh so	uova de so	Over there
Ova yah so	uova ya so	Over here
Dung di road	dong di ruod	Down the road
Up di road	op di ruod	Up the road
Mi a go a town	mi a guo a toun	I am going into town
Yuh deh far?	yu de faar	Are you far away
Stop yah so	stap ya so	Stop right here
Mi soon reach	mi suun riich	I will arrive shortly
Di bus full up	di bos ful op	The bus is full

The little word appearing at the end of three of those rows is doing something English has no single equivalent for. It pins a location down, turning a vague there into a specific right there, and it is one of the most common words in ordinary speech. The travel set in full — the airport queue, the fare, the hotel desk — is in Patois for the airport, the taxi and the hotel.

Food, drink and the counter

Ordering food is the most reliably rewarding place to use Patois, because the exchange is short, the vocabulary is finite, and both parties want it to go quickly. It is also the one place where a visitor speaking a little Patois is read as ordinary rather than as performing.

The verb for eating is not the English one. It is a West African word with its own history, and it is the ordinary everyday verb — the word a mother uses calling children to the table.

At the counter, the cookshop and the table

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Mi hungry	mi hongri	I am hungry
Yuh waan nyam?	yu waan nyam	Do you want to eat
Wah yuh have fi eat?	wa yu av fi iit	What do you have to eat
Gimme a patty	gi mi a pati	Give me a patty
Wid pepper?	wid pepa	With pepper
Nuh put nuh pepper pon it	no put no pepa pan it	Do not put pepper on it
Cook food	kuk fuud	A proper cooked meal
Mi waan someting fi drink	mi waan somting fi jringk	I want something to drink
Di food sweet	di fuud swiit	The food is delicious
Mi full	mi ful	I have had enough

Two rows there repay a second look. The compliment in the ninth row does not mean the food contained sugar; it is the general word for delicious, and using it in the right place marks you out faster than almost anything else on this page. And the double negative in the sixth row is not emphasis or an error — it is how the grammar builds negation, and it is explained in how negation works. The whole ordering sequence, from the queue to the change, is in how to order food in Jamaica.

Money, price and the argument about it

Prices in a market are a conversation with a shape. You ask, you react, the seller restates, you make an offer or you walk. None of it is hostile, but a visitor who accepts the first number and pays it has skipped a social exchange rather than saved time.

The phrase worth learning above the others is the request for something extra at the end — the small addition given once a deal is agreed. It is an institution rather than a trick, and asking for it in Patois reads as good humour rather than pressure.

Asking the price, and what to say next

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Hommuch?	aamoch	How much
Hommuch fi dis?	aamoch fi dis	How much for this one
Too dear	tuu dier	Too expensive
Yuh cyaahn do betta?	yu kyaahn du beta	Can you not do better than that
Mi nuh have nuh money	mi no av no moni	I have no money
Gimme a bly	gi mi a blai	Cut me some slack
Brawta	braata	A small extra given once a deal is done
It cheap	it chiip	That is inexpensive
Change nuh deh	chienj no de	There is no change available

The word for expensive is the same word English uses in my dear, and it has kept a price sense that has gone old-fashioned across most of the English-speaking world. It is not an ornament: it is the ordinary word you will hear a shopper use about a price she thinks is too high. Numbers, note denominations and the whole bargaining sequence are covered in money and numbers in Patois.

Affection, praise and encouragement

This group is where Patois is most obviously not a version of English. English keeps congratulation, praise and respect in separate compartments and reaches for a different phrase for each. Patois runs them together and adds an audience: praise is paid to a person's face, or said out loud so the room hears it.

Terms of address carry much of the warmth. Somebody who is not your brother can be addressed as one, and the effect is ordinary friendliness rather than false intimacy.

Praise, endearment and encouragement

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Big up yuhself	big op yuself	Well done — respect to you
Yuh tallawah	yu talawa	You are strong, you hold up
Mi proud a yuh	mi proud a yu	I am proud of you
Mi love yuh	mi lov yu	I love you
Mi dawlin	mi daalin	My darling
Mi bredda	mi breda	My brother — also a friendly address
Yuh look good	yu luk gud	You are looking well
Gwaan gud	gwaan gud	Keep it up, go well

The first row is the one everybody outside Jamaica has heard, usually over a sound system, and almost everybody outside Jamaica misreads it as something about self-esteem. It is not advice. It is a verb with an object, and the object happens to be you: the full account is in what big up yuhself actually means. Family terms of address, which shade into this group at every point, are in talking about family.

Annoyance, complaint and telling somebody off

You will hear these long before you need them, and understanding them matters more than producing them. Volume and heat are not the same thing, either: an exchange that sounds to a visitor like the start of a quarrel is frequently nothing of the kind.

Recognising this group is free. Using it is a claim about your standing with the person you are speaking to, and a phrase that is affectionate between old friends can be genuinely offensive from a stranger.

Exasperation, complaint and warning

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Cho	cho	An exclamation of exasperation
Mi vex	mi veks	I am angry
Mi tired a it	mi taiad a it	I have had enough of this
Stop di noise	stap di naiz	Stop the noise
Nuh badda mi	no bada mi	Do not trouble me
Yuh too facety	yu tuu fiesti	You are being impertinent
Low mi	luo mi	Leave me alone
Tek time	tek taim	Take it easy — also, be careful

The last row is the most useful and the least obvious. It means slow down, and it is used both as a caution to somebody about to do something rash and as a gentle instruction to a person in a hurry. Said to a child on a step it means mind yourself; said to an adult mid-argument it means calm down. One phrase, and the situation supplies the rest — which is a pattern you will meet again and again.

Time, and how loosely most of it is meant

Time expressions in Patois are a genuine trap for a literal-minded English speaker, because several of them are not statements about clocks. They are statements about intention, and they commit the speaker to doing something without committing them to a moment.

This is not vagueness, and it is certainly not unreliability. It is a different default: an arrangement is a shared intention both parties keep an eye on, rather than a fixed appointment one of them can be late for.

When something is going to happen

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
Soon come	suun kom	Back shortly — timescale unspecified
Jus now	jos nou	In a moment, or considerably longer
Right now	rait nou	Immediately
Likkle bit	likl bit	In a little while
Every day	evri die	Every day
Dis mawnin	dis maanin	This morning
Wah time yuh a come?	wa taim yu a kom	What time are you coming
Long time mi nuh see yuh	lang taim mi no si yu	It has been a long time
All now	aal nou	Even now — still, after all this time

The second row is the famous one and it repays memorising in its true sense. It sounds like immediately to an English ear and it is not: it sits somewhere between five minutes and this afternoon, and the third row is what you use when you actually mean now. Waiting on a doorstep in good faith because you took the second row literally is close to a rite of passage for visitors.

Weather, and the state of the day

Weather talk is the safest practice ground there is. It is low-stakes, it repeats daily, the vocabulary is small, and nobody minds a stranger joining in.

It is also a good place to watch a piece of grammar in the open. Several of these sentences have no verb to be in them at all, because Patois does not put one in front of an adjective. Where English needs an is, Patois needs nothing, and the second row below is the plainest example of it. That absence is a rule rather than an omission.

Talking about the day

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English	Word for word
Rain a fall	rien a faal	It is raining	rain is falling
Di sun hot	di son hat	The sun is hot
It cold yuh see	it kuol yu si	It is cold, you know
Breeze a blow	briiz a bluo	There is a breeze
Weda look bad	weda luk bad	The weather looks poor
Rain a come dung	rien a kom dong	Rain is on its way
Di place wet up	di plies wet op	Everywhere is soaked

The single letter standing before the verb in three of those rows is the progressive marker, and it is the highest-value small word in the language. It does the job of the English -ing plus a form of to be, in one letter, and once you can hear it you can hear the difference between a habit and something happening as you speak. That letter, and the two other jobs it holds down, are the subject of the Patois copula.

The small words that hold everything else together

Everything above is a phrase. This section is the opposite: a dozen words that are almost never worth saying on their own and appear in half the sentences you will hear. Learning them turns a stock of memorised phrases into something you can vary, which is the point at which a phrase list stops being the ceiling.

Read the table as a set of hinges rather than as vocabulary. None of these has a clean English translation, because each covers a range English splits between two or three words.

The connective words that make speech sound like speech

Patois	Written (Cassidy)	English
a	a	is; at; in the middle of doing
fi	fi	to; for; belonging to
deh	de	there; to be located
nuh	no	not; do not
weh	we	where; which; that
inna	ina	in; inside
pon	pan	on; upon; about
dem	dem	they; them; and the plural marker
nuff	nof	plenty; many; a great deal of
likkle	likl	little; small; a bit
ova	uova	over; across; past
wid	wid	with

The eighth row is the one to learn first, because it does two entirely separate jobs. Standing before a verb it is a pronoun. Standing after a noun it makes that noun plural, which is how the language marks number without touching the end of the word — set out in full in plurals and how -dem works. Its cousins, the rest of the pronoun set, are in Patois pronouns.

Phrases that translate word for word and then mean something else

This is the category that a phrase list cannot teach and the reason the prose on this page is longer than the tables. A phrase whose every word is transparent, and whose meaning is not, is more dangerous to a learner than a phrase that is opaque from the start, because nothing warns you that you have misunderstood.

Four of them have already appeared above. The promise to return names no timescale and commits the speaker to nothing more than an intention. The one that translates as in a moment can stretch to this afternoon. The food compliment is not about sugar. And the public praise is a verb taking an object, not a suggestion about how you should feel about yourself.

There is a general lesson underneath the four. Where English builds meaning by adding words, Patois more often builds it by putting an existing word in a new position, or by leaving a word out. A sentence with a missing verb, or a doubled negative, or a familiar word in an unexpected place, is a structure doing something English does differently. The proverbs compress this hardest: thirty of them, with what each is actually saying, are in Jamaican Patois proverbs.

Register, and the phrases a visitor should leave alone

Jamaican speech runs along a range, from deep creole at one end to something very close to English at the other, and speakers move along it constantly according to who they are talking to and where they are. Moving is a skill. No stretch of that range is more or less Jamaican than any other, and none of what follows is about one way of speaking being better.

What it is about is standing. Some phrases mark closeness, or a shared history you do not have, and a visitor using them is heard as claiming something rather than saying something. Nobody will be offended by a time-of-day greeting or a thank you. The annoyance group above is a different matter, and so is any term for a brother or a sister used to somebody you met ten minutes ago.

The honest guidance is unglamorous: start with greetings, courtesies, food and directions, listen for a long time, and let the rest arrive when your relationships do. How the range works, and why the middle of it is the practical place for a learner to start, is set out in the Patois continuum.

Getting from phrases to sentences

A hundred phrases will get you through a market, a taxi and a doorstep. They will not get you through a conversation, because a conversation requires saying something nobody has said to you before, and for that you need the small number of structures the phrases are built out of.

There are fewer than you would expect. Tense is marked with separate words placed before the verb rather than with endings on it, so one verb form serves for every tense — the mechanism is in Patois verb tenses. Plurality is marked after the noun. Negation is built by stacking negative words rather than by cancelling them out. And the verb to be splits into three different things, one of which is nothing at all.

That is most of it. Learn those four, and the phrases on this page stop being fixed strings and become sentences you can take apart and rebuild. The grammar in order is on how to speak Jamaican Patois; the vocabulary with its pronunciation is on Jamaican Patois words; and the structural differences, side by side, are on Jamaican Patois and English. If the music is what brought you here, the language the artists are actually using is unpicked in dancehall lyrics translated.

The last thing worth saying is about practice. Phrases learned from a page decay quickly; phrases said out loud to somebody who answers do not. Anything that gets you producing sound rather than recognising it is worth more than another hour of reading, including another hour of reading this.