Fun & Holidays
Pirate Speak Cheat Sheet: 40 Phrases for Talk Like a Pirate Day
The vocabulary, the grammar quirks, and 40 ready-to-use lines for September 19th and beyond.
Pirate speak as we know it owes less to actual 18th-century buccaneers than to one man: actor Robert Newton, whose growling West Country accent in the 1950 film Treasure Island invented the "arr matey" register that every pirate has used since. That means there is no wrong way to do it — but there is a recognizable way, and this cheat sheet covers it.
Below you will find the essential vocabulary, the handful of grammar quirks that make a sentence sound piratical, and 40 ready-to-go phrases sorted by situation — for International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19), themed parties, content creation, or your tabletop sea captain.
The grammar of pirate speak
Three moves turn any sentence piratical. First, replace "my" with "me" ("me ship", "me hearties"). Second, drop the "g" on -ing words ("sailin'", "plunderin'"). Third, open or close with an exclamation: "Arr!", "Avast!", "Ahoy!", or "Yo ho!".
Add nautical nouns wherever possible (deck, plank, booty, doubloons, the brig) and address everyone as "matey", "ye scurvy dog", or "ye landlubber". That is genuinely most of it.
Greetings and exclamations
- Ahoy, matey!
The all-purpose pirate hello.
- Avast ye!
Means "stop and pay attention" — a command to listen up.
- Arr, that be the truth!
"Arr" is agreement, satisfaction, or just punctuation.
- Yo ho ho!
Pure celebration, ideally with a bottle of rum.
- Shiver me timbers!
An expression of shock or surprise — the timbers being the ship's frame.
Threats and bravado
- Ye'll walk the plank for that, ye bilge rat!
The classic pirate threat — "bilge rat" being a creature of the ship's filthiest part.
- Hand over the booty or feed the fishes!
"Booty" is loot; "feed the fishes" means be thrown overboard to drown.
- I'll keelhaul the lot of ye!
Keelhauling — dragging someone under the ship's hull — was a real and brutal punishment.
- Dead men tell no tales.
A pirate's grim justification for leaving no witnesses.
- Ye've crossed the wrong captain, savvy?
"Savvy?" (do you understand?) was popularized by Captain Jack Sparrow.
Everyday lines, pirate-ified
- "Where are you going?" → "Where be ye bound, matey?"
"Bound" is the sailor's word for headed-toward.
- "I am hungry." → "Me belly's emptier than a looted chest."
Pirate comparisons love treasure and the sea.
- "That is a great idea." → "Now that be a plan worth its weight in doubloons!"
Doubloons were Spanish gold coins, the gold standard of pirate wealth.
- "Let us go." → "Weigh anchor and hoist the colors!"
"Weigh anchor" means lift the anchor to set sail; "the colors" are the flag.
- "Good night." → "Fair winds till the mornin', ye salty dog."
"Fair winds" is a genuine sailor's blessing for a safe voyage.
Frequently asked questions
When is Talk Like a Pirate Day?
International Talk Like a Pirate Day is September 19th every year. It began as an inside joke between two friends in 1995 and went global after humor columnist Dave Barry publicized it in 2002.
Did real pirates actually talk like this?
Not exactly. The "arr matey" style comes mostly from actor Robert Newton's performance in the 1950 film Treasure Island. Real 18th-century pirates spoke the regional dialects of wherever they came from. But the movie version is what everyone now recognizes as "pirate speak".
What does "savvy" mean?
It means "do you understand?" or "got it?". It comes from the French/Spanish "savez/sabe" (to know) and was popularized as a pirate catchphrase by Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.