Want to know how to speak Pig Latin? Take the consonant sound at the start of a word, move it to the end and add “ay,” so “pig” becomes “igpay.” If a word starts with a vowel, leave it alone and add “way,” “yay” or just “ay.” That is the whole system.
The fun is in the details: what to do with “string,” “queen” and “yellow,” and why two friends can disagree about “apple.” Below you will find the rules, a cheat sheet of everyday phrases, the surprisingly long history and the cousins of Pig Latin that children play in other countries. Explore our translation services for details.
Key Takeaways
- Pig Latin has no connection to Latin: it is a word game played with ordinary English.
- Words that start with consonants move the whole opening consonant sound to the end and add “ay.”
- Words that start with vowels take “way,” “yay” or “ay,” depending on which version you grew up with.
- The game works on sounds, not spelling, so clusters such as “str” and “qu” travel together.
- Children all over the world play similar games, including verlan in France and jeringonza in Spanish-speaking countries.
What Is Pig Latin?
Pig Latin is not a language. It has no vocabulary or grammar of its own, and nobody speaks it natively. Merriam-Webster defines it as a jargon made by systematic alteration of English, and gives “ipskay the ointjay” for “skip the joint” as its example.
Linguists call this a language game: a set of rules that scrambles normal speech in a predictable way. Anyone who knows the rule can decode it. Everyone else hears friendly nonsense, which makes Pig Latin less of a secret code and more of a club handshake.
How to Speak Pig Latin: The Three Basic Rules
You only need three rules. Say each word out loud as you convert it, because your ear is a better guide than the spelling.
Rule 1: Words that start with one consonant
Move the first consonant to the end of the word and add “ay.” “Pig” becomes “igpay,” “Latin” becomes “atinlay” and “happy” becomes “appyhay.” Explore our Latin roots in language for details.
Rule 2: Words that start with a consonant cluster
When two or three consonants are pronounced together at the start of a word, they move as a team. “Clown” becomes “ownclay,” not “lowncay.” “String” becomes “ingstray.” Digraphs such as “th,” “sh” and “ch” are single sounds, so they stay together too: “three” becomes “eethray.”
Rule 3: Words that start with a vowel
Nothing moves. You simply add an ending, and this is where Pig Latin has dialects. Many speakers add “way” (“appleway”), others add “yay” (“appleyay”), some add a plain “ay” (“appleay”), and a few say “hay.” None of these is wrong. Pick one and stick with it.
Tricky letters: Y and QU
- Y at the start of a word acts as a consonant, so it moves: “yellow” becomes “ellowyay” and “you” becomes “ouyay.”
- Y later in a word acts as a vowel, so the consonants before it move: “my” becomes “ymay.”
- QU is one sound cluster (kw), so most speakers keep it together: “queen” becomes “eenquay.”
| English word | How it starts | Pig Latin |
|---|---|---|
| pig | One consonant | igpay |
| latin | One consonant | atinlay |
| happy | One consonant | appyhay |
| clown | Cluster (cl) | ownclay |
| smile | Cluster (sm) | ilesmay |
| three | Cluster (thr) | eethray |
| string | Cluster (str) | ingstray |
| school | Cluster (sch) | oolschay |
| queen | Cluster (qu) | eenquay |
| yellow | Y as a consonant | ellowyay |
| my | Y as a vowel | ymay |
| apple | Vowel | appleway, appleyay or appleay |
| eat | Vowel | eatway, eatyay or eatay |
| open | Vowel | openway, openyay or openay |
Some people write a hyphen where the word was split (ig-pay, atin-lay). It is optional, since there is no official spelling.
Everyday Phrases in Pig Latin
Once the rules click, practice with short phrases you already say every day. The table below uses the “way” ending for vowel words. Swap in “yay” if that is how your family says it.
| English | Pig Latin |
|---|---|
| Hello | Ellohay |
| Good morning | Oodgay orningmay |
| Please | Easeplay |
| Thank you | Ankthay ouyay |
| Yes / No | Esyay / Onay |
| How are you? | Owhay areway ouyay? |
| What is your name? | Atwhay isway ouryay amenay? |
| My name is Sam | Ymay amenay isway Amsay |
| Nice to meet you | Icenay otay eetmay ouyay |
| Keep it secret | Eepkay itway ecretsay |
| Happy birthday | Appyhay irthdaybay |
| I love you | Iway ovelay ouyay |
| See you later | Eesay ouyay aterlay |
| Do you speak Pig Latin? | Oday ouyay eakspay Igpay Atinlay? |
Speak slowly at first. Small words such as “I,” “is” and “are” trip up beginners more often than long ones do. Explore our evolution of spoken language for details.
Where Did Pig Latin Come From?
Nobody knows who invented it, and anyone who names a single inventor is guessing. What we can trace is the paper trail.
- Early 1800s: the Online Etymology Dictionary records “hog Latin” as a name for children’s made-up speech as early as 1807.
- 1866: an article describes a “hog latin” that worked differently from the modern game, adding “ge” to words.
- Late 1800s: the name “pig Latin” appears in print. Etymonline dates it to 1889, and Merriam-Webster gives 1895 as its first known use.
- 1919: singer Arthur Fields records a novelty song called “Pig Latin Love,” whose subtitle uses the same “ay” pattern speakers use today.
- 1930s: Hollywood picks it up. Ginger Rogers sings a verse in Pig Latin in Gold Diggers of 1933, and the Three Stooges use it in their 1934 short Three Little Pigskins.
Why “Latin”? Not because of any link to ancient Rome. For centuries, English speakers have jokingly called fake or mangled speech “Latin” of one animal or another: dog Latin, hog Latin, even goose Latin. The pig version simply won.
Pig Latin also left a mark on real English. Merriam-Webster lists “ixnay,” a Pig Latin form of “nix,” with a first known use in 1928. “Amscray,” from “scram,” followed the same path into American slang.
Why Do Kids Love Pig Latin?
The obvious answer is secrecy. For a few glorious months, an eight-year-old can discuss birthday presents in front of a younger sibling. It rarely fools adults, since most of them played the same game. Explore our regional language variations for details.
The deeper answers are belonging and play. Knowing the code means you are in on something, it needs no board, screen or equipment, and converting words in real time is a puzzle that feels like a game.
It is also quietly educational. To say “ingstray,” a child has to split “string” into its opening sounds and the rest, which is the kind of sound awareness that early reading depends on. Linguists find this useful too. A paper from SIL on word games as experimental linguistics points out that Pig Latin players move one consonant or three with equal ease, which is evidence that speakers treat the start of a syllable as a real unit, without ever being taught to.
Do Other Countries Have Their Own Pig Latin?
Yes, and plenty of them. Wikipedia keeps a long list of language games from around the world. Most use one of three tricks: moving sounds, reversing syllables or inserting extra ones.
| Game | Where it is played | How it works | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verlan | France | Flips the order of syllables | fou (crazy) becomes ouf; femme (woman) becomes meuf |
| Louchébem | France | Swaps the first consonant for an L, then tacks the original sound on the end with -em | boucher (butcher) becomes louchébem |
| Jeringonza | Spain and Latin America | Adds a P after each vowel and repeats the vowel | No sabe nada becomes Nopo sapabepe napadapa |
| Língua do Pê | Brazil and Portugal | Adds a P syllable to every syllable | você becomes vopocêpê |
| Alfabeto farfallino | Italy | Adds an F plus the vowel after each syllable | ciao becomes ciafaofo |
| Rövarspråket | Sweden | Doubles every consonant and puts an O in between | stubborn becomes sostotubobboborornon |
| Löffelsprache | German speakers | Repeats each vowel with “lew” in front of it | Hallo becomes Halewallolewo |
| Babigo | Japan | Adds a B plus the vowel after each syllable | watashi becomes wabatabashibi |
| Ubbi Dubbi | United States | Adds “ub” before each vowel sound | hello becomes hubellubo |
Some of these have grown far beyond the playground. Verlan takes its own name from flipping l’envers (“the inverse”), and words such as meuf are now common enough to appear in French dictionaries. Sweden’s Rövarspråket (“the robber language”) became famous through Astrid Lindgren’s Bill Bergson detective stories, where the young heroes use it as their code.
If invented languages are your thing, you may also enjoy our look at the Minions language, which borrows words from real languages around the world. Explore our professional document translation for details.
When Wordplay Meets Real Translation
Pig Latin is easy to “translate” because it is English in a costume: one rule in, one rule out. Real languages do not work that way. Verlan slang in a French film script, a pun in an ad or a nickname in a family letter cannot be decoded with a formula. A translator has to recognize the wordplay and rebuild its effect in another language.
That takes a person who knows both cultures, which is why our translation services rely on human translators. Playful or strictly formal, the goal is the same: the new reader should understand the text the way the original audience did.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pig Latin a real language?
No. Pig Latin is a language game, not a language. It has no native speakers, no vocabulary of its own and no grammar beyond the rules for rearranging English words. Everything you say in Pig Latin is still English underneath, which is why any English speaker can learn it in a few minutes.
How do you say “hello” in Pig Latin?
“Hello” in Pig Latin is “ellohay.” The word starts with a single consonant, H, so you move the H to the end and add “ay.” “Hi” follows the same rule and becomes “ihay,” while “hey” becomes “eyhay.” For a farewell, “goodbye” becomes “oodbyegay.” Explore our Spanish language translation services for details.
Do you add “way,” “yay” or “ay” to vowel words?
All three are in use, and none is the single correct form. “Way” and “yay” are the most common endings for words that begin with a vowel, so “egg” can be “eggway” or “eggyay.” Some speakers add a plain “ay” and say “eggay.” The game was passed along by word of mouth, so different families and schools settled on different versions. Choose one and stay consistent.
Does Pig Latin have anything to do with Latin?
No. The “Latin” in the name is a joke. English speakers have long used “Latin” for speech that sounds foreign or scrambled, as in “dog Latin” for mock Latin and “hog Latin” for children’s invented talk in the 1800s. Pig Latin uses English words and sounds only, and it will not help you read a single line of Cicero.
What do “ixnay” and “amscray” mean?
Both are Pig Latin words that slipped into everyday American slang. “Ixnay” comes from “nix” and means to reject or stop something, as in “ixnay on the surprise party talk.” “Amscray” comes from “scram” and means to leave quickly. They are among the few Pig Latin forms people use without thinking of the game at all.
Have a Real Language Question? Alktay otay Usway
Pig Latin you can handle on your own now. For documents, recordings or messages in actual foreign languages, our human translators are happy to help. Chat with us to tell us what you need, or call 1-800-230-7918.
