'Slay', 'cap', 'sus': How some UAE parents struggle to understand Gen Alpha slang

Some parents in the UAE have said that Gen Alpha’s fast and condensed communication style is challenging intergenerational conversations.

Millennials stressed they were unable to understand what “skibidi” (spontaneous, funny) moments are, while giving way to “sigma” (people who don’t conform to societal hierarchies or expectations). They often find themselves struggling to understand unfamiliar terms and the strange ways they are being used.

This fast-evolving linguistic whirlwind is characteristic of Generation Alpha—those born between 2010 and 2025.

As the first generation to be fully immersed in the digital age, dominated by short-form video content on TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts, Gen Alpha is rapidly developing a distinct vernacular.

Their slang is shaped by a ‘hyperreactive internet culture’ that is evolving at an unprecedented rate, widening the linguistic divide between generations.

French expat in the UAE, Christine Quartier La Tente said, “I think every generation comes with its lingo. Adults just forget. My grandparents, in their time, had one called ‘argot’ (colloquial language) in French. This was mainly spoken by what we called at that time the ‘titis Parisiens’. My parents inherited the "argot" and my generation invented the ‘verlan’. Verlan is a whole system of slang where syllables in a word are swapped to create a new, often playful, term. The word verlan itself was created by swapping the syllables of l'envers, which means ‘the reverse’—so the syllables in l'en-vers switch places and become ver-lan. It is still present, nowadays, in the French songs, either pop songs or rock and rap music.”

She explained that in their times they used to wear all their clothes inside out, ‘à l'envers’ in French. “The pockets would be out, the seams all visible.”

“Our parents struggled to understand us,” added Christine.

“My 11-year-old daughter Daria’s vocabulary is highly influenced by the content on the internet that her generation is consuming. Once I went and checked on the web all the words she uses. What I struggle with is the speed when she talks. That’s because of the short forms the YouTubers or influencers use, and the children watch. They rush their talk to fit in a short time. For me, Daria was more articulate when she was talking as a primary student. Around Grade 5 it started to shift and from Grade 6 it became very hard for me to understand her. I have to slow her down and ask her to articulate, especially, as English is not my mother tongue,” said the Dubai resident.

A 2021 linguistics study by researchers Frasasti Wahyu Nuraeni and John Pahamzah, published in the journal LITERA, explores a similar issue. Their paper, titled 'An Analysis of Slang Language Used in Teenager Interaction,' investigates the types of slang and the reasons behind its usage among teenagers.

Some of the reasons cited in this survey about today’s English-speaking youth include, “Just for fun of the thing, for delights in virtuosity, to be different, to be picturesque, to be unmistakeably arresting, even startling, to escape from clichés or to be brief and concise.”

Meanwhile, as parents struggle to keep up with evolving communication styles, they also highlighted their efforts to understand and engage with their child’s way of expressing themselves.

Shreya Chakraborty who has a 12-year-old son said, “ A new set of terms emerges every few weeks. I do feel there’s a communication gap at times. My child often uses memes, internet slang, and pop culture references that I don’t fully comprehend. For example, he’ll say things like ‘slay,’ meaning they did something really well, or ‘cap,’ meaning he’s lying or exaggerating. Sometimes he uses phrases like ‘bet’ to express agreement or ‘sus’ to describe something suspicious, which can be hard to follow. This generation also loves using acronyms like ‘YOLO’ which means 'You Only Live Once'. I try to stay open-minded and let him explain these terms to me.”

American expat Natalia Miranda expressed that one of her biggest frustrations is the recurring trend of pitting one generation against another. “I believe Gen Alpha’s ways of communicating and learning are vastly different from our own. For example, when I was eight years old like my son now, my thought process and interests were worlds apart from those of my son at the same age.”

However, experts explained short attention span, choosing brevity in everything they do, the need for excessive mindless social media usage, and the wrong belief that consuming meaningless low-quality content on social media is the antidote for stress can prove to be detrimental in the long run.

Girish Hemnani, a life coach and energy healer based in Dubai, said, “This is the phenomenon of ‘brainrot’ which is often characterised as fragmented, hyper-abbreviated, and meme-centric communication and can hinder intergenerational conversations. Platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram prioritise bite-sized, high-intensity content designed to grab and hold attention for mere seconds. This shapes communication styles that rely on rapid-fire humour, inside jokes, and niche trends that are often unfamiliar to older generations.”

“Gen Alpha is growing up in an era where their attention is constantly being competed for. This encourages quick, surface-level interactions over deeper, reflective communication. Each generation develops its own slang and cultural shorthand, but the speed at which this is happening now—fuelled by the internet—is unprecedented. Terms and trends rise and fall almost daily, leaving older generations struggling to keep up,” added Hemnani.

The generation gap in language can create challenges in educational environments, where teachers may find it difficult to connect with students who use unfamiliar slang.

Specialists also explained this can limit the development of empathy and the ability to express complex emotions verbally.

Shereen Abraham, an emotional wellbeing consultant at Inner Voice Consultancy said, “Not just parents, even teachers, older siblings and family members have complained about the difficulty in having meaningful conversations with Gen Alpha. A parent once told me that whenever he tries to have a meaningful conversation with his Gen Alpha kid, it feels like he is in a sci-fi movie trying to understand the language of aliens.”