English learners – ever been to the USA and felt totally lost in a conversation, despite your English being pretty good? Never fear, slang translation is here.

It’s possible that “how was your trip to California” is more accurate than “the United States” – I got a lot of comments from readers who had no idea what a “whip” is. My brother, who wrote this comic, went to school and lived in Los Angeles for four years, so I’m sure some LA vocab creeped into his own, and that’s where he got it. Either way, he teaches English now in Bangkok, and wanted to express how difficult “normal” English can be, even for those who’ve learned “textbook” English quite well – we just don’t speak that way, do we?

But I’m afraid the comic above didn’t come with a translation guide, leaving many non-native English-speaking natives in the dark. So, in a totally straight-faced and academic way, let’s shed some light and break down some American English über-slang (needless to say, this will probably be far more interesting for non-native English speakers, but there are a few surprises in there as well!):

Grab some grub: “go get something to eat.” Grub is fairly common American slang for “food,” and you’ll often hear, not just in the USA, the phrase to “grab” something as a placeholder for “going and getting” it.

Stomping grounds: “neighborhood,” “area where you hang out a lot.” Comes, I suppose, from animals that stomp around a lot in one particular place because they like it so much. Hood is also acceptable slang for your “area”, but that’s more for where you live, whereas stomping grounds could be anywhere you spend a lot of time.

Hop in: “get in.” This might be obvious, but it’s still slang, people!

Whip: “car.” Where we got tripped up. Now, this slang term comes today from hiphop culture, but it has a fascinating history going back to the turn of the century, according to Quora. Back when cars were actually horse-pulled carriages (which is where “car” comes from, of course), the driver used an actual physical whip to steer the horses. When the carriages became motorized, they used a wheel to steer – the steering wheel. Somehow, the nickname “whip” for the steering wheel persisted, and now it’s used to refer to the whole car. Wow!

Bounce: “depart.” As in, “sorry, I’ve got to leave.” I’ve gotta bounce.

Catch some Z’s: “take a nap” or “sleep.” In newspaper cartoons, for some reason, when a character is sleeping it’s often notated with “zzzzzzzz.” Here it’s explained as a way for cartoonists to represent snoring, but I don’t snore in “zzzz”s, do you?!

Shoot the breeze: “chit-chat;” “speak casually.” Specifically, shooting the breeze refers to talking about things that aren’t important, hence your words are flying inconsequentially away into the wind…

Take a rain check: “reschedule;” “temporarily decline.” At the turn of the century (when a lot of expressions seem to have originated, eh?), baseball stadiums would issue rain checks to spectators if the game had to be postponed due to rain. They’d receive a “check” for their ticket which could be redeemed some day in the future when the weather was better. Today, it’s used to excuse yourself from or decline an offer from someone to go do something right now, but you’d still like to keep the door open to do that thing sometime in the future. It’s a polite way of declining someone.

Catch you (or see you) on the flip side: “see you later.” According to Urban Dictionary, this term comes from radio DJs, and refers to the “flip” or “b-side” of a record. It was meant as a short farewell, that the listener would not hear the DJ again until the a-side finished playing and he flipped the record around.

No doubt: “definitely;” “of course.” Pretty self-explanatory, yeah? Is this even slang?

Take it easy: “goodbye, have a nice day.” Relax, you know? See you later, have a good one, take it easy.

Hit the road: “get in our car / on our motorcycle and start driving.”

Stoked: “excited;” “thrilled.” Someone who’s very excited about surfing in California is most certainly stoked.

Chow down: “eat.” Chow has been American slang for food since at least – you guessed it – the turn of the century. It’s involved in other expressions including chow line (the line of people waiting for food) and chow time (…”time to eat”).

Ride shotgun: “ride in a car in the passenger’s seat.” Another one with Wild West origins! Back when stagecoaches traveled cowboy America, the driver was usually accompanied by someone carrying a shotgun to ward off bandits, Indians, and, I assume, zombies. According to this site, in the 1939 film Stagecoach, actor George Bancroft literally says, “I’m going to Lordsburg with Buck…I’m gonna ride shotgun.” Apparently this was a real cowboyism, not just a Hollywood invention.

Wow! That comic was jam-packed with idioms. Here’s hoping I was able to clear some of them up for you, even for those slang-experts out there.

Any other English slang terms you’re having trouble with, or have a good story about? Share it with us!