Here Are 7 Essential Slang Words You Need to Know in New Jersey

New Jersey as a whole is a textured collection of unique people, places, and food. And when we talk, it's even more textured. Admittedly, sometimes it can be hard for others to understand what we're talking about.

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Sometimes the unusual words we say are punctuated and peppered with an F-bomb here and there. And we can get very creative with insults - but that's a topic for another day.

For this conversation, we're going to go a little deeper than the controversy of "Pork roll vs Taylor Ham" or "Hoagies vs Sub" - these are old conversations. Been there done that.

We're going to get a little more nuanced than that. Things you'll need to understand if you want to effectively communicate and understand somebody from New Jersey. You may want to implement these into your vocabulary too if you're new here!

So here are 7 common slang words you absolutely need to know if you're going to survive in New Jersey.

1. "You Good"

"You good" actually has several means in New Jersey, and you need a trained ear to learn the differences. Once you hang around us long enough, you'll begin to understand that these two words can translate to "Are you okay?", "Do you need money?", "No worries!", or "You're welcome" - just to name a few.

2. "20regularcash"

This is 3 words, but the way we say it around here, it's basically one word. For you out-of-staters that pump your own gas, "20 regular cash" is what you would tell your gas station attendant when you need them to fill your tank with $20 worth of gas, and that you intend to pay with cash.

3. "Jeet?"

This question is a love language. Its simple translation is "Did you eat?" High probability that you're heading to Wawa or a diner shortly after this conversation.

4. "Gabagool"

You'll hear people in New Jersey randomlly throwing around this goofy word, and you can thank Tony Soprano for that. We know it sounds funny, so that's why we say it. But technically, "gabagool" is a slang term for capicola - an Italian cured meat.

5. "DTS"

DTS = "Down The Shore", and can be used to refer to any of the Jersey shores.

6. "Youse"

This one kind of drives me crazy, but "Youse" is our version of "Ya'll." For example, you may hear your aunt Shirley say "Youse gonna be home for dinner after the Birds game?"

7. "In the City"

This one can be confusing! Ironically, if you hear a New Jerseyan say "in the city", we're not referring to any city that's actually in New Jersey. 9.5 times out of 10, we're referring to either Philadelphia or New York. 

Did we miss any essential New Jersey slang words? Tell us what you think should be added!