There are some basic grammar rules to the way Bahamians speak.

1. Words the begin with ‘v’ or ‘w’ are often switched so that woman becomes voman, very becomes wery, and worm becomes vorm.
2. ‘oi’ sounds more like ‘er’ in words like foil, boil and moist becoming ferl, berl and merse.
3. ‘Str’ seems almost impossible to say since words like strength, strawberry, and strangle are often changed to skrent, skrawberry, and skrangle.
4. ‘Th’ is sometimes changed to ‘d’ so this and that become dis and dat.

If you can master these four rules, you’re only just at the beginning of speaking Bahamianese.

Here is a list of words you can practice using these rules:

• wild
• toilet
• oil
• stranded
• them
• shrimp
• welcome
• visitor