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Broe’, daai’s kwaai – Cape Flats Afrikaans for ‘Brother, that’s heavy’.

Coloured – See ‘Annerlike’ above.

Daai, daai’s – Cape Flats Afrikaans for ‘that’ (daai) or ‘that is’ (daai’s).

Daatlik – Cape Flats Afrikaans for ‘immediately’.

Dagga – Afrikaans for cannabis.

Die Boer – Literally, ‘The Farmer’. It is the name of a famous, intimate music theatre in Durbanville, a suburb of Cape Town.

Die rekening is agterstallig – Afrikaans for ‘Your account is in arrears.’

Dis ‘n lekker een die – Afrikaans for ‘this is a good one’. ‘Lekker’ is word widely used for anything that is ‘good’, ‘delicious’, ‘tasty’.

Dof – Afrikaans for ‘faint’, but also used to indicate a stupid person.

Donner – Mild Afrikaans expletive, literally meaning ‘thunder’. Often used in the sense of “I am going to donner you’ – I am going to hurt / hit you.

Doos – Afrikaans expletive, comparing someone to female genitalia. Closest English translation would be ‘cunt’.

Dop – Afrikaans for ‘a drink’, referring to alcohol.

Drol – Afrikaans for ‘turd’.

Dronkgat – Afrikaans for ‘drunkard’. (Literally, ‘a drunk arse’.)

Ek kom van die Pniel af – Cape Flats Afrikaans for ‘I come from Pniel’. Pniel is a village near Stellenbosch.

Ek sê jou – Afrikaans for ‘I am telling you.’

Ek versta’ jou nie – Afrikaans for ‘I don’t understand you’. (Cape Flats vernacular.)

Ek vra ma net – Afrikaans for ‘I am just asking.’

Ek wiet, ja – Cape Flats vernacular for ‘I know, yes.’

Flippen – Mild expletive, used as an acceptable alternative for ‘fucking’. (Afrikaans.)

Fokken – Afrikaans for ‘fucking’, as in ‘that fucking guy . . .’

Gefok – Afrikaans for ‘fucked’, as in ‘I am fucked.’

Fok weet – Afrikaans for ‘fuck knows’.

Fokkit – Afrikaans for ‘fuck it’.

Fokker – Afrikaans for ‘fucker’.

Fokkol – Afrikaans for ‘fuck all’, meaning ‘nothing’.

Goeters – Afrikaans for ‘stuff’.

Gooi – Literally, Afrikaans for ‘throw’, but used as a slang verb substitute for, inter alia, ‘sing for us’, or ‘tell me’ …

Hase – Literally, Afrikaans for ‘rabbits’, but used here as the collective name by which members of the South African police refer to the public.

Helm – Literally, Afrikaans for ‘helmet’. According to local superstition, when a baby is born with the placenta covering her / his head, it is believed the baby is born with the ‘helm’, and could have a special talent of foretelling the future, or ‘see’ or ‘feel’ evil.

“ Here is an example so long ” – ‘So long’ is a typical example of how Afrikaans had influenced South African English. ‘Solank’ (literally means ‘in the mean time’) became ‘so long’, and is widely used.

Hier’s nou ‘n ding – ‘Now here’s a thing.’ (Afrikaans.)

Hierjy – A nobody, as in “I am not just some nobody’. (Afrikaans.)

Hyahi – IsiZulu for ‘No!’. (South Africa has 11 official languages: Afrikaans, English, IsiNdebele, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, SiSwati, Tshivenda, Xitsonga. Township slang transcends all 11.)

Jakob Regop – Afrikaans for the fl ower zinnia. Literally means ‘Jacob standing at attention’ sometimes Anglicized as ‘Jacob Straight-up’, it can also refer to an erect male sexual organ.

Jirre – Cape Flats slang for God, approximates ‘Gawd’. (Afrikaans.)

Jissis – Jeez (as in harsher version of the exclamation Jesus!) (Afrikaans.)

Jy’s – Abbreivates form of the Afrikaans ‘jy is’, meaning ‘you are’.

Jy kannie net loep nie – ‘You can’t just walk away?’ (Afrikaans.)

Jy wiet. Jy wietie – Cape Flats Afrikaans for ‘You know’. Or: ‘You don’t know’ = jy wietie.

Kaaps – Literally, ‘from the Cape’ or ‘of the Cape’, referring to anything from the Cape Town region, or the wider Western Cape Province. (South Africa has nine provinces (similar to the states of the USA): Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northwest, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, and Western Cape.)

Kak – ‘Shit’.

Knippies – Literally, ‘knip’ is Afrikaans for ‘clasp’, ‘clip’ or ‘fastener’. Knippies would literally be the plural form, but used here as a nickname for the pickpocket Tyrone Kleinbooi, who uses a hair clip as distraction.

Kwaai – Mostly used in slang form to indicate coolness, it is an Afrikaans word with a very wide application. Literally meaning someone who is hot-tempered, bad-tempered, ill-natured, harsh or severe, it is also often used as an exclamation: ‘Kwaai!’ = “Cool!’ (or ‘Heavy!’).

Kwaat – Cape Flats Afrikaans for ‘angry’.

Lat ek een hier het – Afrikaans (Cape Flats vernacular) of: ‘… that I have one here.’ “And it just so happens lat ek een hier het” means: “And it just so happens that I have one with me / right here with me”.

Lekka, lekker – Afrikaans word widely used for anything that is ‘good’, ‘delicious’, ‘tasty’. (‘Lekka’ is Cape Flats vernacular, ‘lekker’ is formal Afrikaans.)

Liewe ffff – Literally, ‘dear ffff . . .’ US English equivalent would be “Sweet fff…’ as in someone just stopping short of saying ‘sweet fuck’.

Lobola – (Or Labola, an isiZulu or isiXhosa word, sometimes translated as ‘bride price’.) A traditional Southern African custom whereby the man pays the family of his fiancée for her hand in marriage. The custom is aimed at bringing the two families together, fostering mutual respect, and indicating that the man is capable of supporting his wife financially and emotionally. Traditionally paid in heads of cattle, but cash is now widely accepted. (Source: http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobolo)

Los – Afrikaans for ‘loose’.

Ma’ – Abbreviated form of ‘maar’, meaning ‘but’. (Afrikaans.)

Ma’ nou weet hulle – ‘But now they know.’ (Afrikaans.)

Maaifoedie – Cape Flats Afrikaans for a scoundrel or rascal.

Maar – see ‘Ma’’ above.

Middag, goeie middag – ‘Afternoon, good afternoon.’ (Afrikaans.)

Mkhonto we Sizwe – or Umkhonto weSizwe (“Spear of the Nation”) or ‘MK’ as it was more commonly known, was the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC), launched on the 16th December 1961.

The African National Congress (ANC) is South Africa’s governing party and has been in power since the transition to democracy in April 1994. The organisation was initially founded as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein, with the aim of fighting for the rights of black South Africans. The organization was renamed the ANC in 1923. While the organization’s early period was characterized by political inertia due to power struggles and lack of resources, increasing repression and the entrenchment of white minority rule galvanized the party. As a result of the establishment of apartheid, its aversion to dissent by black people and brutal crackdown of political activists, the ANC together with the SACP formed a military wing, uMkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation/ MK) in 1961. (Quoted from South African History Online: http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/ umkhonto-wesizwe-mkand http://www.sahistory.org.za/organisations/african-national-congress-anc)

Moenie soe wies nie – Cape Flats vernacular for ‘Don’t be like that’.

Moenie worrie nie – Afrikaans slang for ‘Don’t worry’.

Moer in – ‘Moer’ is a wonderful, mildly vulgar Afrikaans expletive, and can be used in any conceivable way. Its origins lie in the Dutch word ‘Moeder’, meaning ‘Mother’. ‘Moer in” means ‘to be very angry’, but you can also ‘moer someone” (to hit somebody), use it as an angry exclamation (Moer!, which approximates ‘Damn!), call something or someone ‘moerse’ (approximates ‘great’ or ‘cool’), or use it as an adjective: I have a ‘moerse’ head ache – I have a huge head ache. ‘Moer toe’ means ‘fucked up’, or even ‘dead’.