You have been speaking Igbo your whole life. Nobody told you.
Ifeoma Igbotic counted it out on camera this week — Igbo words sitting in plain sight inside Nigerian Pidgin, doing their job so quietly that nobody stops to ask where they came from.
The Igbo language has significantly shaped many of the words and expressions we use in everyday conversations.
Ifeoma Igbotic
The full list
Her words, in her order, with the Igbo behind each one. Where the IgboLearn dictionary has a recording, there is a play button — tap it and hear it said properly.
- Oga — boss, superior, the one in charge. See also ọgaranya, a rich or wealthy person
- Biko — please. Biko, ekweghị! — Please, I don’t agree.
- Tufiakwa — God forbid. Said with the whole body, not just the mouth.
- Oyibo — a white person, or anything foreign.
- Gbam — exactly, spot on. Gbam! — Exactly!
- Chineke — God. Also the exclamation when the news is bad.
- Kpomkwem — exactly, precisely, to the letter.
- Akamu — pap, guinea corn gruel.
- Igwe — king. Used for anyone worth hailing.
- Nzuzu — foolishness. Rarely said gently.
- Oh chim — my chi, my God. What you say when the ground moves.
- Iyanga — showing off, swagger, enjoying yourself a little too visibly.
- Odeshi — literally it does not leak. Bulletproof, untouchable.
- Odogwu — a great man or warrior; one able to face anything.
- Achalugo — the eagle. A praise name for a beautiful or accomplished woman.
- Ogbonno — seed of the wild mango (ugiri), ground for soup.
- Ewu — goat. Ewu na-ata ahịhịa — Goats eat leaves.
- Udara — the African star apple.
- Inukwa — do you hear that? The sound of disbelief.
- Nkịta — dog. Enwere m nkịta — I have a dog.
- Okwuru — okra. Eji ofe ọkwụrụ eri nri ọka.
- Manya — drink, wine, palm wine.
- Nwoke — man. Nna m bụ nwoke — My father is a man.
- Bịa — come. Ha ga-abịa echi — They will come tomorrow.
- Akawo
- Una — you, plural. Straight from Igbo ụnụ.
The one that should stop you
Una. Every Nigerian says it. Una dey hear me?
It is Igbo ụnụ, the second-person plural pronoun, with the edges sanded off. Pidgin never invented a word for you lot. It borrowed one, and the borrowing was so clean that nobody notices it is a loan.
That is the whole point of the list in one word.
The ones that got away
Six of her words have no entry in the dictionary yet: tufiakwa, iyanga, odeshi, achalugo, inukwa and akawo.
Look at which ones they are. The exclamations. The praise names. The words you shout rather than look up. Living language runs ahead of every dictionary written for it, and these are the words doing the running.
Keep going
If you recognised more of this list than you expected, that is not an accident — it is a head start. We went deeper on where these words came from, and on a few everyone credits to Igbo that arrived from somewhere else entirely.
Read: Igbo words hiding in Nigerian Pidgin →
Or search any word above in the IgboLearn dictionary to hear it in a full sentence.
List and video by Ifeoma Igbotic. Follow her for more on Igbo language and culture. Pronunciation audio from the IgboLearn dictionary.