If you have ever stumbled across an Australian person or the Aussie accent, one thing that you instantly recognise is their habit of trimming words, which in most cases is only the last few letters.
Most of these slang terms would be easy for an outsider to guess what each means, but the meaning of some terms can be radically different to what they insinuate at a first glance.
The Slang
'Aussie' and 'uni'
As an international student, the most common ‘Aussie’ (which in itself is Australian slang) slang would be ‘uni’. ‘Uni’, as anybody could have guessed, is a shortened term for ‘university’.
So it’s always; “How’s uni going?” “What are you doing in uni right now?” “What uni do you go to?”
'Maccas'
Another common Aussie slang term would be “Maccas”. Maybe not directly related to students and education like the last one, but everyone knows how McDonald’s is a top university students' go-to fast food places due to the low prices. And, Maccas is simply the shortened Aussie slang for the fast food chain.
So, when in the land of Down Under, we don’t say “Do you want to get anything from McDonald’s?”, instead, “Do you want to get anything from Maccas?”.
'Arvo'
One other slang term (that I remember thinking was a place but was actually something much simpler) is ‘arvo’. Arvo simply means afternoon.
“So, do you want to hang out this arvo?”
I think it should be pretty obvious that Aussies love to shorten their terms, with all the slang terms that I have mentioned so far.
'Brekkie'
Next up would be ‘brekkie’. Yet again, the shortened version of breakfast.
So if you want to grab something from Maccas at morning, you will only be able to order from the brekkie menu.
'Woolies'
Woolworths are among the top three supermarkets in the country. But unlike their other two competitors, Woolworths has a much longer name.
Hence why us Aussies just simply call it ‘Woolies’.
'Rego'
Last one, but also the term I learned most recently, ‘rego’.
Rego simply stands for Car Registration. This is the one key slang term you might come across while purchasing or hiring a vehicle in Australia.
"What's your rego?"
Picking it up
Most of these terms being used in everyday scenarios helps when you're still learning to remember them. Sometimes you end up just picking them up without realising and using them instinctively.
If you are trying to memorise them from the off, the simple trick to most of these terms - as I mentioned earlier - is just to cut off the end of the original term and shorten it.
In the end, Australian slang is used to downplay the seriousness of what a regular word stands for. It’s not about forming a slang or dialect, but more about being a habit of friendliness. The 'slang' not only describes the word but also describes the people alongside it.
