Foreign languages

CHAPTER II. EXAMPLES OF COMMON WORDS AND GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE USED IN NEW ZEALAND.

2.1. A unique vocabulary used in New Zealand English

New Zealand English has a number of dialectal words and phrases. These are mostly informal terms that are more common in casual speech. Numerous loanwords have been taken from the Māori language or from Australian English.
New Zealand adopted decimal currency in 1967 and the metric system in 1974. Despite this, several imperial measures are still widely encountered and usually understood, such as feet and inches for a person's height, pounds and ounces for an infant's birth weight, and in colloquial terms such as referring to drinks in pints.^[32][33][34] In the food manufacturing industry in New Zealand both metric and non-metric systems of weight are used and usually understood owing to raw food products being imported from both metric and non-metric countries. However per the December 1976 Weights and Measures Amendment Act, all foodstuffs must be retailed using the metric system. In general, the knowledge of non-metric units is lessening.¹⁰
The word spud for potato, now common throughout the English-speaking world, is first recorded in New Zealand English.
As with Australian English, but in contrast to most other forms of the language, some speakers of New Zealand English use both the terms bath and bathe as verbs, with bath used as a transitive verb (e.g. I will bath the dog), and bathe used predominantly, but not exclusively, as an intransitive verb (e.g. Did you bathe?).
Both the words amongst and among are used, as in British English. The same is true for two other pairs, whilst and while and amidst and amid.
In addition to word and phrase borrowings from Australian, British and American English, New Zealand has its own unique words and phrases derived entirely in New Zealand, many of which are slang terms. The following list summarises some such words and phrases:

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  ... and that (phrase) – a substitution for unnamed other(s), activity(ies), thing(s). e.g. "We had a beer with Darryl and that." "I picked up the tools and that." (also in UK)
  
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  Aussie (noun) – Australia. This extension of the term to mean the country is unique to New Zealand. In Australia and internationally, Aussie means Australian (person or thing), as opposed to Australia (the country.) The normal adjectival usage is also used in New Zealand
  
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  bach (noun) – cheaply built and basic holiday home; located at beaches throughout the country
  
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  boost it/boosting (verb) – to speed or to go fast, derived from the term boost in reference to vehicles (eg turbo-boosting a car)
  
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  big-huge something large, big, or huge as in "there was a big-huge spider crawling down the wall!"
  
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  Carbonettes (noun, especially in the North Island) – pieces of charcoal used in barbecues
  
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  choice! (interj) – one-word rejoinder expressing satisfaction
  
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  chur (interj) – many uses, the most common being a form of greeting, or a contraction of "cheers" most commonly heard in "chur, bro". It is also used as an alternative to "good on you"
  
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  convert (verb) – to steal a car, hence also the name for car theft being car conversion
  
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  crib (noun) – similar to bach (above), used more in Otago and Southland
  
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  dairy (noun) – corner shop; convenience store
  
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  durry cigarette
  
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  eh? (particle) – used to elicit a response. Used much more in New Zealand than in the stereotypical Canadian English.
  
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  Gib board, Gibraltar board (noun) – the common NZ term for drywall, plasterboard interior wall lining (a genericised trademark; Gib™ is a trademark of Winstone Wallboards Ltd)
  
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  handle (noun) – a 425–500 mL glass of beer with a handle, as sold in pubs
  
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  hardout/hard – used to show agreement, or used to show emphasis/intensity. Examples: Agreement: "Yeah hard/hardout". "He was running hardout."
  
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  heaps (adjective, adverb) – abundant, plenty, plentifully. Examples: "There are heaps of cops surrounding the house." "I love you heaps." "Give it heaps!" – give it your best effort! often in cooking someone would say, "that's heaps" meaning 'that's too much' (also used in Australia)
  
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  hokey pokey (noun) – the New Zealand term for honeycomb toffee; also a flavour of ice cream consisting of plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid lumps of honeycomb toffee.
  
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  jandals (noun) – the NZ term for flip-flops. Originally a trademarked name derived from "Japanese sandals".
  
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  jug (noun) – a kettle (also used in Australia)
  
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  kai (noun) – Māori word meaning food, or something to eat, used by Māori and Pākehā alike
  
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  kumara (noun) – sweet potato, specifically those historically cultivated by Māori.
  
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  Kiwi (adj) – Not only does Kiwi mean 'a New Zealand person', but it is sometimes used to replace the name of New Zealand in NZ businesses or titles, such as KiwiRail, Kiwibank and KiwiBuild, or New Zealand-related nouns, e.g. "Kiwi-ism". It is also used to address something that is particularly related to New Zealand, e.g. "that house is pretty kiwi" (also used in Australia). N.B. Kiwifruit is always called "kiwifruit".
  
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  luncheon sausage (noun) – devon sausage (also called "fritz" or "belgium" in some parts of New Zealand)
  
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  metal road (noun) – a dirt road overlaid with gravel to assist drainage and keep dust down, typically found in rural settings
  
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  puckerood (adj) – broken; busted; wrecked. From Māori "pakaru" – to shatter
  
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  ranchslider, ranch slider, (noun) – a NZ term for a sliding door, usually of aluminium frame and containing glass panels (a genericised trademark; Ranchslider™ is a registered trademark of Fletcher Window & Door Systems).
  
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  rark up (verb) – to criticise, confront or hurry along
  
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  scroggin – a nutritious snack taken along on hikes by trampers
  
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  shingle (noun) – gravel. A shingle road is an un-sealed road
  
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  shot! – (acknowledgement or interj) – "thank you", or used as an expression of joy or to give praise. Can also be used as congratulations or acknowledgement of good work – "Shot for your run time!" Can also be said "Good shot!"
  
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  slab (noun) – a case of twelve to twenty four cans of beer packed together and bought as a whole (also used in Australia)
  
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  stink (adjective) something bad, unfortunate, undesirable, unfair as in "that's a pretty stink situation."
  
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  sweet as! (interj) – Cool! Awesome! (also in UK and Australia)
  
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  tar seal road (noun) – chipseal road
  
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  tiki tour (noun) – a guided tour; exploration; a meandering route taken in order to waste time
  
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  togs (noun – always the plural form) – a swimming or bathing costume, swimsuit, bikini (also used in Australia)
  
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  town house (noun) – a small self-contained, free standing house with little or no front or back yard, often with a shared driveway with neighbouring houses. The NZ meaning is unique and differs from the American, Asian, Australian and European meaning of townhouse (typically terraced houses) as well as the older UK meaning (city houses of nobility) (also used in Australia)
  
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  tramping (noun) tramp (verb) – Bushwalking, hiking. Usage is exclusive to New Zealand
  
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  up the boohai / up the Puhoi [River] / in the wop wops – to be lost or stranded, of unknown whereabouts or when unwilling to divulge whereabouts. In the outback, or in the boondocks
  
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  whānau – extended family, from grandparents to grandchildren (Māori word, used by New Zealand government: "If the mother is too young, the whānau can help her to take care of her baby")
  
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  whiteware – major kitchen appliances (white goods in UK)