A British verbal punctuation mark that turns any statement into a request for agreement or simply marks where your thought ends.
Innit is a verbal punctuation mark in British speech—a way to turn any statement into an invitation for agreement or simply mark where your thought ends. What began as "isn't it" compressed into two syllables that attach to anything: "That's mad, innit?" "They're coming tomorrow, innit?" The grammar doesn't matter anymore. The phrase does one thing: it softens certainty, makes space for the listener, keeps conversation flowing.
It emerged in British working-class communities in the 1940s-50s, living entirely in speech for generations. You'd hear it in London markets, on street corners, in homes—but never see it written down. For seventy years, innit belonged to voices that formal English refused to acknowledge. Then 2016 arrived: social media shattered the boundary between spoken and written language. Suddenly the phrase that had been invisible in texts for decades flooded digital spaces. Young people typing the way they actually talked.
What innit reveals is deeper than slang evolution—it's about whose language gets to count as real. A phrase can be spoken by millions for generations and still remain culturally invisible until the people using it gain the power to write their own speech into existence. Innit didn't change. The world's willingness to see it did.