Top 10 Ghanaian Phrases

I’d like to be writing more fun, short posts, but with my chosen style of blogging (broad thematic topics), it’s been difficult for me to do that. So, I’d like to try something a bit new and different. Top 10 lists, published around the beginning of each month. I’ve got some ideas for the first few but if any of you have ideas please let me know. So without further ado…

The Top 10 Ghanaian Phrases

10. I beg you: Not complete without its corresponding hand-gesture (slapping the back of one open hand onto the palm of another), this is another way of saying "Please", or better yet "Pretty please with a cherry on top." Madam, I beg you (hand slapping), give me some money."

9. From (day/time) going: This means that "beginning at" or "no sooner than" the stated that day or time. Optionally, you can add the "ending at" or "no later than" day or time after "going". It will rain from April going to June. OR We will leave at 3 going.

8. You are invited: Invitations are a weird thing in Ghana and cultural awareness is key. Meals are often communal and it is courteous to invite anyone in the area to come and eat, often saying "You are invited." The catch is that they don't ALWAYS mean you are actually invited. And if you tell someone that they are invited to come eat with you, simply saying it once is just polite and not an actual invitation. You must say it multiple times for it to be meaningful. We are eating Bonku, you are invited!

7. Flashing: This simply means calling someone, usually when you first get someone's number (although I use it any time I'm calling someone). This one has, unfortunately, a real life example that I only I found funny at the time I said it. I'm sorry but I must leave, I have to flash my mother.

6. Chop: While this can also mean stolen money, it most often means food or money for food. This one can also come with a hand gesture which is pinching your right hand together and lifting it towards your open mouth (mimicking eating with your hands). The Ghanaian village/town equivalent of a restaurant is called a "Chop Bar" (bonus phrase: A bar is called a "spot" here). Please sir, give me chop.

5. Go and come: Everyone wants to know where everyone else is all the time, especially the foreigner, and once they learn they tell you to go and come. It's really that simple, but I probably hear this one at least twice as much as any other phrase on this list - they love it. In my village, the alternative is to say "return quickly" in Ewe.

4. Dash me: This is another way of saying "Give me for free" and can really be associated with anything, from ones shoes to a knife, although most often refers to something at the market or money. [When buying pasta and rice] Please sir, dash me some tomato paste.

3. Sorry-ooo!: This one is just an emphasized "Sorry". But it's just one example of how Ghanaians love to add an "ooo" to the end of just about anything. "I like this food-ooo!" "You are late-ooo!" Etc. This one is also really popular among volunteers because it's very fun and addictive to say.

2. Disding: This is the Ghanaian pronunciation of the words "this thing" that they use when they can't find the English world they're looking for, which means it can refer to virtually every noun. They often say it so fluidly that if you didn't know any better, you'd think they actually believe the name of the object they're referring to is "disding". Go fetch da (the) disding from da (the) disding so we can go to farm.

1. I'm coming: This means exactly the opposite and took me months not to laugh every time I heard it because it would always be said as someone was walking away. Often it means that they intend to come back but not always. I find it especially funny because "I'm coming" was probably my favorite phrase growing up as it was said every time my Mom called upstairs for me to do a chore, and of course I never came. So it feels somehow deserved that I'd be in a culture that gives it right back to me.