“And Then?”: UK Woman Living in Johannesburg Shares Her Favourite South African Words and Phrases

• A London woman living in Johannesburg shared a video breaking down her favourite South African words and phrases
• She had South Africans in the comments crying with laughter at how accurately she described each one
• The video quickly went viral, with people tagging friends and adding their own favourite 'South Africanisms'

Not everyone moves to a new country and falls in love with how the people speak. @partygirl98x, a London woman living in Johannesburg, posted a video on 4 April 2026 that had Mzansi absolutely howling. She shared some of her favourite South African words and phrases she has collected since making the move. The best part, her delivery was so accurate that Mzansi couldn't help but relate to every single one.

She kicked off with "yerrrr" and nailed the energy behind it perfectly, describing it as what you say when you are completely at the end of your tether. Then came "now now," which she correctly pointed out means absolutely nothing close to right now. "Wara wara" got its own explanation as the South African way of saying, and so on and so forth. She also noticed that South Africans love the word "must" in places where it does not really mean you have to do something. Then came "and then", and how people phrase requests as questions like "don't you want to just get me that water" when they very much want you to get them the water. She also pointed out that calling a traffic light a robot still gets her every time.

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Watch the TikTok clip below:

Mzansi loves the woman's South Africanisms

South Africans added their two cents on TikToker @partygirl98x's clip:

@Brunoh said:

"And then wena?"

@Dudu Fierce wrote:

"Yerrrr and yeses can be complementary too."

@Nazo Mama added:

"And then? What must to can happen?"

@Lindie Gcaba said:

"Chomie, if it operates itself, it is a robot."

@Maybe: Malebo wrote:

"You are a FAST learner chomie."

@JackieWolf noted:

"And then she did not pull out yoh or eish."

@Tokzen asked:

"Do you know otherwise when you are greeted, meaning how are you?"

@Nhlanhla340 added:

"You are telling the story, and the person says to you, imagine."

@Rocco said:

"The way and then is used does not mean what next. It can mean what is happening, or what are you doing or what happened."

More on foreigners and South Africa

• Briefly News recently reported on a British man who spends time between Wales and South Africa and what he said about comparing the two countries had Mzansi both flattered and slightly annoyed.
• A UK content creator visited the first Black-owned wine farm in the Western Cape, and the history behind how it came to exist was quite interesting.
• A South African man in the UK put KFC to the ultimate taste test, and his verdict on which country does it better had people in the comments deeply divided.

Proofreading by Kelly Lippke, copy editor at Briefly.co.za.

Source: Briefly News