Vocabulary
Tro-tro, Danfo, Matatu or Jeepney? The Shared Minibus
The packed minibus that runs a set route has a different name in every Outer Circle city that uses one. Ghana says tro-tro, Lagos says danfo, Nairobi says matatu, Manila says jeepney, Trinidad says maxi-taxi, and South Africa says kombi. Most of Britain, North America and Australia have no word for it, because they do not have the vehicle.
The question, as everyone in the survey sees it
What do you call a shared minibus used as public transport?
The packed van that runs a set route and picks people up along it — not a private taxi.
- Tro-tro
- Danfo
- Matatu
- Jeepney
- Maxi / maxi-taxi
- Kombi
- I do not have a word for that
- Something else
Who says what
Each accent profile in the survey has an expected answer to this question. Where a profile allows more than one answer, the region genuinely varies.
I do not have a word for that
Expected in 53 of the survey's accent profiles.
- Modern RP
- Bristol
- West Country
- London
- Multicultural London
- Birmingham
- Scouse
- Mancunian
- South Yorkshire
- West Yorkshire
- Geordie
- Central Scottish
- Highland Scottish
- South Wales
- Northern Irish
- Cork
- East Irish
- Southern Appalachian
- New York City
- California
- Texas
- Boston
- Chicago
- Newfoundland
- Jamaican
- Bajan
- Australian
- New Zealand
- Canadian
- Indian
- Pakistani
- Singaporean
- Hong Kong
- Melbourne
- Malaysian
- Midland
- African American
- Hawaiian
- Philadelphia
- New Orleans
- Vancouver
- Perth
- South Indian
- Liberian
- Sri Lankan
- Spanish-accented English
- French-accented English
- German-accented English
- Italian-accented English
- Russian-accented English
- Brazilian Portuguese-accented English
- Japanese-accented English
- Mandarin-accented English
Why this question is in the survey
Vocabulary questions like this one are the fastest way to place a speaker, because the answer is a single conscious word choice rather than a sound people cannot hear in themselves. They also travel: a word that splits England into five regions often splits North America into three quite different ones. Every answer is stored with a coarse map cell for the town you grew up in, and a region is coloured in once at least five people there have answered.
See the full question bank, the accent profiles these answers feed, or how the scoring works.