The purpose of this thread is for Nigerians in English-Speaking countries to share their 'Nigerian English' moments.

I recently went to a store in UK, and asked one of the staff that I was looking for KuKUnba (Cucumber), she looked confused, and said, 'kukunba, we don't do kukunba sir'...

I was angry and said, 'Madam, you don't know kukumba', the big green fruit? She laughed and asked, ' quicumber'? I said yes, quicumber or whatever. She kindly took me to the quicumber Aisle, where I picked it up and headed to the till.

As I was heading home, I kept thinking why I hadn't overcome this 'Nigerian English', despite the fact that English has been my second language, and I've been speaking it from childhood.

What I find most annoying is that I often get corrected by other African nationalities that speak English as their Lingua Franca. I have to admit that Countries like Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya and even Ghana ( I hate em lol), do have better pronunciation of these English words than Nigerians do.

The question that springs to mind is what might be responsible for our 'Nigeria English'? Is our standard of education to blame or our dialect?

Tribally, Hausas that are well-spoken to me, are the best when it comes to English Words' pronunciation. Yorubas rank second, while Igbos are the worst...

My Igbo brothers, forgive me, but why will

oil..................become oyelll? .................That's unforgivable........lol

Yorubas are guilty of putting their dialect into English.. ''Oya'' for example is becoming mainstream. Oya, lets go, Oya come, Oya dis, Oya that....

Haha, don't be surprised if Oya makes it into English dictionary in the next 10 years.....

OYA../O-ya/ (Verb): A West-African word that means get ready.... lol

Hausas always mistake p for f...lol ( their dialect could be why)


Oya............... share your 'Nigerian English' moment and how you ended up being corrected or embarrassed.

Bro there's no need feeling inferior with your pronunciations. Truth is English language like every other language varies from country to country & that's why even on phones, laptops, pc's, apps etc. You see a list of different countries & their variations of English. Eg. English (u. s.) English (UK) English (south Africa) English (Jamaica) English (Nigeria) French (france) French (canada) French (Ivory coast) Spanish (spain) Spanish (mexico) etc. Pronunciations & words & phrases vary from country to country even if it's the same language so don't feel inferior my brother. There's absolutely nothing wrong with your English or pronunciations except if of course your grammatic construction's what's poor.

Lol, I think it's because Pidgin English is now mainstream and our educational system is now derelict. Nigerians think for you to be 'real', you have to razz up the whole place with pidgin. Older Nigerians who may not even be graduates have a better command of English than today's graduates.

FYI, the Igbos who say oyel is analogous to the Ibadan man that says 'Searrrr' instead of chair, chicken as see-keen, Chinese rice as Sai-nese rice

stillwater: Older Nigerians who may not even be graduates have a better command of English than today's graduates.

It's a pity that this is true.

English is a bitter language. Just speak it anyhow you can. At all at all na him bad pass.

234GT: English is a bitter language. Just speak it anyhow you can. At all at all na him bad pass.

Funny. How's English bitter

@OP,you can't cheat nature or "delete" your accent overnight over a borrowed language.
The oyibos too do mess up our language and that's why "oka" became Awka, "osodi" became oshodi etc.