

A marker of camaraderie among Nigerians, it is a simple, informal greeting that is best used with people you know well, or in casual situations. The verb at the end is usually discarded, so be careful: if someone asks you How far, they are not referring to your journey to meet them. This common greeting means “How is everything?”.

Na and dey are the verbs ‘to be’ and wétin means ‘what’. It is as simple as that, but you will find them a lot How Far? Three words that occur frequently in pidgin are: ‘na, dey, and wétin. Pidgin was developed to help communication between people from different parts of the country, as well as between locals and Europeans. There are more than 250 other local languages, the most common of which are Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. English may be the official language, but the lower the socioeconomic scale, people’s understanding decreases. The Nigerian Pidgin English is the Creole language based on English and the real lingua franca of Nigeria. In this article we have listed 15 Nigerian Pidgin English phrases you will love to know. Want to know more about Nigerian Pidgin English? This article would help especially if you are a foreigner to understand and be able to easily communicate or relate with Nigerians from every part of the country regardless of the tribe.
