Steal My 5 Favorite Slang Terms

🌟 Episode Highlights

• should you learn slang?
• how to find slang
• my favorite slang

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Transcript

Hello, hello! Welcome or welcome back to English Extras! I’m Jean. I’ve been an English teacher since 2019 and this is the podcast that takes you beyond textbook English. If you want to sound more natural, then you’re in the right place. I’m here to give you real-world English, cultural tips, and smart strategies to boost your fluency. So, are you ready? Let’s learn some English.

Today we’re talking about slang, which I really enjoy. Slang is an informal way of communicating, using words and phrases that are typically only understood by a certain group of people. Slang is usually generational, meaning that people around the same age will share similar slang, but not always.

I’ve heard some people argue that you shouldn’t focus on learning slang, that it doesn’t matter because it’s only understood by a small sub-group of language speakers, but I’m not here to tell you whether you should or should not learn slang. If you want to learn it, do it, if you don’t–well, nobody is forcing you. Do you.

That’s actually a good informal expression that some might call slang: “do you.” It basically means “be yourself–do what you want or need to do.” 

Before I share the slang I love to use, I want to mention a few additional things about slang.

If you’re interested in learning more slang, I highly recommend using social media platforms like Instagram or TikTok. What I’ve heard many language learners do is they create a new account–let’s say on TikTok–and they only watch videos in their target language on that account. This is useful because you can be more immersed this way versus seeing a mix of videos in your target language and your native language.

One of the most useful places on these platforms is the comments section. This is where I discover the latest slang expressions and, as is very common with slang, it jumps from the digital space to the spoken space. So I use a lot of these expressions when I’m having spoken conversations, not just digital ones.

Also, slang can quickly become dated. What I mean is, slang can quickly become associated with a certain period of time and meanwhile, there are new slang words coming to the forefront. So a lot of the slang I’m going to share with you became popular several years ago but are still being used even though they aren’t new anymore.

So keep in mind how often you see or hear a particular slang term.

Okay, let’s get into it.

The first one I want to share is: “I was today years old.” 

I like learning new things, but sometimes I learn something new that surprises me and not really in a good way. Sometimes I learn something that I think I should have already known because it seems like really obvious information.

So, for example, “I was today years old when I learned that the space between the ‘E’ and the ‘x’ in the FedEx logo creates an arrow.”

This feels like it should’ve been really obvious–I’ve seen the FedEx logo hundreds of times in my life–but it never occurred to me. I never realized. So this is when I could use the slang, “I was today years old.”

The next one is: “popped off.”

I use “popped off” when something or someone is doing something exceptionally well or if something is getting really exciting.

I use this in a variety of contexts. One example where I use this is when I’m describing my YouTube channel to people. To explain, I started 2025 with around 200 subscribers. Then, one of my videos popped off. This means that one of my videos went viral. It started performing exceptionally well on YouTube and after, my whole channel kinda started popping off.

(I have to say a brief thank you here because while I’m writing this, my channel is at nearly 80,000 subscribers, which is absolutely crazy. Thank you to everyone who subscribes and watches my videos. Thank you, thank you, thank you.)

I will also use “pop off” if one of my friends or my husband is getting really enthusiastic about something. So if my husband is explaining one of his games to me, and he’s really enthusiastic about it, I’ll nod and say, “Pop off, king.”

Another is “say less.”

I use “say less” as a way to signal that I am agreeing to something or I’m already convinced of something.

For example, when a friend asked me for a small favor the other day, my thinking was, “Of course I’ll do this for you, you know I gotchu” so when they asked me for a favor, my response was, “Say less, fam.” (“Fam” here is short for “family” and you can use this with your close friends.)

Another example is if someone is suggesting something to me and I become convinced. Let’s say someone is telling me about a book they’re reading and they think I should read it. I can ask, “What’s it about?” and they describe this book as Howl’s Moving Castle meets Jane Eyre–which are two stories I already really like–then I can stop them by saying, “Say less. I’m absolutely going to read this book.”

Another one I love to say is “slept on.”

“Slept on” is a way to describe something that doesn’t get talked about enough and should be talked about or appreciated more.

So, for example, I said this the other day to my husband when we were talking about movies. We were watching a Marvel movie called Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. It’s a fantastic movie in my opinion. I love it, but I feel like nobody talks about it. 

So I said to my husband, “This movie is so slept on.” This basically means that I think this movie should be appreciated more but it currently isn’t.

If you like superhero movies like Marvel movies, you should see Shang-Chi. It’s funny. It’s heartwarming. It’s action-packed. It has beautiful graphics and music. Go watch it, seriously. Give it a try.

The last one I want to share today is “full send.”

I actually use this one most often in one specific context. First, let me explain something.

I am not a big gamer. The video games I do play are usually cozier, meaning there isn’t any dying or fighting; it’s just chill and relaxed. So, I prefer games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Cozy Grove and not Call of Duty or Final Fantasy. 

The most competitive video game I willingly play is MarioKart. My husband and I started playing online with one of our friends during the pandemic, and then one of my former students joined us, and then one of my current students joined, so now there are five of us–me, my husband, one of our American friends, my former student from Germany, and one of my current students from Poland. 

Every Saturday afternoon, we meet online and play MarioKart. Even playing eight races, it doesn’t take a lot of time, so we usually play a mini golf game after. Inside the mini golf game, you can control how much power you hit your golf ball with. Sometimes, we want to use all the power we can to hit the golf ball. Now, you could say, “I’m going to use full power.” But we don’t. We say, “I’m going to full send.”

“Full send” means to go all out or commit fully to something, usually an action. So while we’re playing mini golf, someone in the group can ask me, “How much power are you going to use for this shot?” And I can say, “Oh, I’m gonna full send it.” That means I’m going to use the full power amount.

I sometimes use this in other ways. For example, on TikTok, if I see someone pulling a prank on their partner, and they are fully dedicated to this prank–whatever it is–then I can say, “He is full sending on this prank.” That means the person is fully committing to an action–in this case, a prank.

And here’s a bonus one, because I couldn’t leave it out. The absolute final one on this list is “slaps.”

I use “slaps” to describe something that is absolutely amazing. I think it began describing just music. For example, people would say, “This song slaps” to describe a really good song, but it has expanded to more or less any topic. So I use it especially to describe food. If I’m eating some really good food, I’ll say, “Oh my gosh, this slaps.”

So there you have six of my favorite slang terms I use often. This is not an exhaustive list–meaning, I didn’t share all of the slang terms I use most often–but these are some of my favorites. So if you’d like me to share more of the slang I use, please let me know, and I can make a part 2.

As always, thanks for being here! Until next time, my friends! Bye!