innit
[ IN-it ] (the t is often swallowed in London speech)
interjection · also used as adverb (sentence tag, "you were there, innit?")
Innit is British slang for "isn't it." It ends a sentence to ask you to agree, as in "cold today, innit?" Said on its own, it means "exactly."
innit has 3 meanings. Jump to: [The tag] [The reply] [The filler]
type interjection seen on irl, texting, tiktok status classic
Can you still say it?
innit is a classic: old, stable, and understood by just about everyone. Safe to say, and likely always will be.
What does innit mean?
- 1.
The tag: Put on the end of a sentence to invite agreement, like "right?" In London youth speech it no longer has to match the verb. You were there, innit? They should stop, innit?
- 2.
The reply: Said alone in answer to someone else, it means "exactly" or "tell me about it." A: that exam was brutal. B: innit. No question is being asked.
- 3.
The filler: Dropped into a story as verbal punctuation, with no answer expected. So I go down the shop, innit, and he starts on me, innit. Real, but the least common of the three.
Innit squashes "isn't it" into one word and puts it on the end of a sentence. Cold today, innit? The job is to ask the listener to agree. That much is plain English. What makes it slang is what happened next. In London youth speech it stopped matching the verb. You can say "you were there, innit?" or "they should stop, innit?" where standard English needs "weren't you" or "shouldn't they." It has become a general "right?" that fits after any sentence at all.
Said on its own, as a reply, it means "exactly" or "tell me about it." A: that exam was brutal. B: innit. Outsiders often miss this use and hear a question that is not there.
The third use is pure punctuation. Some speakers drop it into a story every few words, with no answer expected. That is the use people imitate when they mock it. It is real, but it is the least common of the three.
One more thing outsiders get wrong. It is not rhyming slang, and nobody coined it. It is a contraction that has been in London speech for generations.
Where did innit come from?
The exact first use is unclear. The word is a squashed "isn't it," and that part is old London working-class speech. Green's Dictionary of Slang cites the music-hall comic Max Miller in a routine from around the 1940s or 50s, then a play from 1962. The plain contraction has been around for a long time.
What is new is the any-sentence version. Linguists trace that to London's multicultural youth speech from the 1990s on. Writing for the BBC, David Crystal credited London's Asian and Jamaican communities with the fashion. He credited the comic character Ali G with spreading it nationally from 1998, including a 1999 release titled "Ali G, Innit." Ali G spread it; he did not invent it.
A corpus study found the tag most frequent among young, ethnic-minority, inner-London speakers. A 2021 study argues the form grew from inside English, as "is not it" was squashed and re-read as one unit, with language contact helping it along rather than creating it. One thing it is not: Cockney rhyming slang. Some sites say so, with no source.
Sources: innit - Wiktionary · innit!, excl. - Green's Dictionary of Slang · innit | Dictionary.com · Keep your English up to date: Innit (David Crystal) - BBC World Service · Grammaticalization and language contact in a discourse-pragmatic change in progress: the spread of innit in London English (Pichler, 2021) - Language in Society · Multicultural London English - Wikipedia
How to use innit in a sentence
cold out today, innit
we're getting the bus, innit, it's quicker than walking
In a conversation
that exam was brutal
innit
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British Slang WordsQuestions about innit
- What does innit mean?
- It is short for "isn't it." At the end of a sentence it asks you to agree, like "right?" Said on its own, it means "exactly."
- Is innit proper English?
- No. Dictionaries label it slang or non-standard. The full "isn't it" is fine anywhere, but innit stays casual, and it marks you as British and usually young.
- Why do British people say innit?
- Because it is a quick way to invite agreement. In London youth speech it fits after any sentence, which plain "isn't it" cannot do. It has been in London speech for generations.
- Is innit Cockney rhyming slang?
- No. It is a contraction of "isn't it," not a rhyme. Some sites repeat the rhyming-slang claim without a source, and the dictionaries do not support it.
- How do you reply to innit?
- If it ends a sentence, answer as you would "right?": yeah, true, or a nod. If someone says innit on its own, they are agreeing with you, and no reply is needed.