Excuse me?

Pardon me?

Beg your pardon?

What/Eh?

At some stage during your visit to Barbados

espcially if it's your first, you will engage

in a conversation with a Bajan (i.e., Barbadian).

At some stage during the conversation, you may

hear a word or two of the Barbadian dialect that

may leave you lost. Maybe even a little desperate.

A desperation not unlike that first time, while at

primary school, you figured out arithmetic, and long

division in particular. Ah! Those were the days!

However, time marched on.

Now, you're in high school, or college, or whatever.

Now you've got algebra and equations and

trigonometry and calculus and the lot to reckon.

Now you're really lost and really desperate.

Fear not, at least, as far as understanding the

dialect is concerned, as for the Math, well, sorry.

You're on your own.

Here are a few Bajan sounding words

and expressions as well as their English meanings:

Awrite/Arite Den -> Alright then/Alrighty then

Cah yuh -> Carry your (insert expletive here)

Cuh dear -> Oh dear

Cyan (not the colour) -> Can't

Dat -> That

Den -> Then

Dere -> There

Ef/Eff -> If

Fuh -> For

Mekkin' -> Making

Mussy/Mussee -> Must be

Nah -> No

Rasshole -> Rasshole (NOTE: this is a swear word)

Shudda/Shoudda -> Should've

Ting -> Thing

Wuk -> Work

Wunna -> You all

Wuh -> What

Yeh/Yeah -> Yes