Some things are just reyt Leeds, they are. From taking your ferret for a walk to your bus driver stopping mid-route for a bag of chips, there’s nowhere else like it. We love one thing more than most about Leeds: the dialect. It could easily be its own language and we wouldn’t have it any other way. So, to pay homage to our local lingo, we’ve compiled some of our favourite Leedsisms, whether they’re compliments, put-downs or just plain old sayings that you’d hear in every Loiner’s household. Because, well, you know, Yorkshire.

Ey up, cock!

Meaning: Hello, good friend!

Did you really think we’d swear on here? This is a Loiner’s favourite greeting for the people closest to them.

Be reyt

Meaning: Every little thing is going to be OK.

In times of extreme hardship, like when the chippy doesn’t open for another half an hour, we don’t worry too much. It’ll be reyt.

That’s sound, is that, pal

Meaning: What you just said is very good, my friend.

When one Loiner agrees with another Loiner, or anyone else for that matter, it is sometimes so sound that we have to confirm it twice in the same sentence, we do. Like little Yorkshire Yodas, we are.

Ooooooosh!

Meaning: That is most excellent. I fully appreciate what you just said.

Made famous by one of Leeds’ biggest celebrity characters, Keith Lemon, this is the exclamation we make when we heartily approve of something.

Bonnie lass

Meaning: Pretty woman

Yorkshire people express their appreciation for a good-looking lady with a phrase that’s as much a Leedsism as it is Scottish slang.

Wottatodoo

Meaning: What a lot of fuss

When things get out of hand, a ‘to do’ is caused and a Leedsism that looks like a language from another planet is uttered.

That’s champion!

Meaning: That is very good

You know something is proper good when a Loiner uses a noun as an adjective to describe it.

Gaffer

Meaning: The boss

One of our favourite compliments in Leeds. If you’re the gaffer, you’re a reyt boss, in’t ye?

Guff

Meaning: Fart

“Who’s guffed?”

Got monk on

Meaning: In a mood

“Has tha got a monk on, lad?” is a very Leeds way of asking somebody if they’re in a mood.

Sprog

Meaning: Child

It sounds utterly disagreeable, but nothing bad is meant by this alternative name for a baby or child in Leeds.

Reyt vexed

Meaning: Very annoyed

“I’m reyt vexed, me” might be commonly heard on the terraces at Elland Road or the Carnegie Stadium in response to a refereeing performance of the bad sort.

Tarra

Meaning: Goodbye

Tarra, ducks! We’re off t’ boozer!