Talking Simlish: A history of conversations in The Sims

Life simulators reflect our world, offering players a chance to experiment with households of digital people and live out curious fantasies from the freedom of their PC. The Sims is by far the most memorable effort in this genre, asking players to nurture jobs and relationships while making sure their avatars don’t soil themselves or meet the Grim Reaper.

Ever-present throughout Maxis’s manic digital persona manager is an uncanny tittering that conveys emotions but is otherwise gibberish to the human ear. Simlish, as it is known, is just like Klingon in Star Trek or Dothraki in Game of Thrones—a language invented to suit a fantastical world. But there’s so much more to it than just context-appropriate babble.

The weird and wacky history of Simlish begins with 1996’s SimCopter, a lesser-known low-poly flight simulator. Here, the language began as a series of human-like groans and sighs, used for (among other things) reactions to your piloting capabilities. Designer and Sim godfather Will Wright continued this language-free legacy with his next project, The Sims.

Speaking to Retro Gamer in 2020, Wright explained that when it came to The Sims, he was concerned about the limits of technology getting in the way of a player's imagination. "By having them speak this kind of gibberish, your human imagination actually fills in the blanks and will imagine the conversation,” he explained. “That's really an example of us offloading a portion of the simulation to the human imagination.”

Yet in the decades since the late ‘90s, Simlish has evolved far beyond its humble gibberish-ridden roots and into a full-fledged internet culture touchstone. What began as a helpful way to engage a player's fantasy has spawned a network of memorable phrases and quirks players have been trying to decipher for 25 years.
 

How do Sims communicate?

To communicate with other Sims, a player must select their target Sim and choose from a wheel of conversational topics. These topics are typically split between romantic, friendly, and action-based prompts. From here, your Sim will start uttering a few words in their native tongue, Simlish.

While much of the language is indecipherable jargon, the best way to understand your Sim is via their tone. A sad Sim might let out a softened “Sul Sul” (Simlish for hello), whereas a flirty Sim might elongate the second “Sul” as they lean towards their romantic prey. Language in Simlish mirrors the real world, and their musical lilt will be more telling than the words themselves. Body language, thought bubbles, and interface pop-ups also quickly help explain whether an interaction is positive or negative.

As the series progressed, Maxis diversified the process of conversation. Sims now use a variety of phrases for the same prompt—even a simple hello or goodbye. In the latest iteration, an introduction goes way beyond waving and can be steered in a friendly, mean, or funny direction by the player.
 

The Evolution of Simlish

The Sims (2000 - 2004)

When the series first debuted, Simlish was a lot more garbled, sounding like a strange compilation of the world’s most esoteric languages mashed together. Options for interaction were limited, and Sims didn’t have as many emotes available either. Instead, their personalities shone through via simple thought bubbles and physical animations. If a Sim wasn’t getting along with another, a bubble would appear above their head with a red cross over a certain character's face. Alternatively, if a Sim was excited, they would exuberantly wave their hands in the air.

The Sims also introduced basic Simlish music and movies, which were accessible through a TV or radio. Radio stations like Disco or Country presented rhythmic Simlish interpretations of the genres. Turn on the TV, and you’d find horror, action, romance, and cartoon channels, with the audio track playing a sequence of evil laughs or cartoonish yells.

The systems of communication were simple by today's standards, but they still made their mark and allowed us to stir up all kinds of drama and attach our hopes and dreams to Maxis’ premade characters—I’m still waiting for Agnes CrumpleBottom to apologise for slapping me, more than two decades later.
 

The Sims 2 & The Sims 3 (2004 - 2014)

The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 was a golden age for the expansion of Simlish, as Maxis boosted the language’s complexity and added new options for socialisation and personality formulation.

The Sims 2 improved on The Sims by introducing new features like Wants and Fears, as well as advanced metrics for tracking relationships. In the slick new 3D world, Sims would talk to themselves and emote wildly if they experienced personal goals or tragedies, and even become affected by events they weren’t directly involved in. For example, if a Sim catches another Sim cheating in a relationship, they’ll throw their hands up and cry.

It sounds rudimentary, but these small, careful innovations brought a marked sense of presence and humanity to the games.

Further down the line, The Sims 3 added Moodlets, which changed how a Sim behaved based on experiences like a good night's sleep or an embarrassing encounter, with complementary snippets of Simlish to sweeten the pot.

Alongside tweaks to gameplay, we also saw Simlish radio get a boost with new radio stations and real-world artists like Paramore and Katy Perry translating hits like “Pressure” and “Last Friday Night” for a Sim audience. Expansions added more artists, including Hot Chip and Lily Allen, to the series, with genres expanding to include more period-stamping categories like Dubstep and Techno. (Rest in peace, neon shutter shades—gone, but not forgotten.)

Throughout this period, the sounds that form the bedrock of the Simlish language became clearer in the mix, and were easier for players to memorise and turn into memes online. Where the initial game traded in strange mumbles, The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 was all about elongated vowels and clear enunciation. During this period fans of the series also banded together to create multiple unofficial dictionaries for Simlish in an attempt to decode what their avatars were saying.
 

The Sims 4 (2014 - Present)

The Sims 4 is the most recent addition to the series—and as such, Sim-to-Sim interactions and the Simlish language are the most clear and complex. Alongside thought bubbles and body language, there’s also a conversation tracker at the top of the screen where you can quickly see who your Sim is chatting with, as well as the nature of the conversation (i.e. friendly or flirty). In The Sims 4, you can also have conversations with multiple Sims at once, and you can continue to chat while performing actions like eating, which diversifies how your households communicate.

Additional expansion packs like Lovestruck and Life & Death also opened the door for richer interpersonal dynamics related to heady topics like love and grief. With these add-ons, players could get into sticky situations with multiple dating partners and honor the departed through rituals and memorials. These additions also grew the Sims' faux vocabulary too, far beyond what we saw in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3.

Even after 25 years, there’s no official dictionary for Simlish. We’re all Simmers looking for meaning in the dark—and in that regard, it looks like Will Wright got his wish. That said, while much of Simlish is nonsensical, there are a few phrases used consistently in conversation:

• Sul Sul: Hello
• Dag Dag: Goodbye
• Neibs: No
• O Vwa Vwaf Sna: Nice to meet you
• Ongie: Selfie
• Atohteh: I need the toilet
• Oh Feebee Lay: I’m hungry

We hope this history of Simlish has helped you understand a little more about how your digital avatars communicate—even as you fill their lives with mayhem.

The Sims 4 is available now on the Epic Games Store, or you can pick up The Sims: 25th Birthday Bundle to dig into the series’ history.