Tuff means impressive or really cool: people use it to praise a car, trainers, a track or a good trick. It's a slang spelling of tough, and you'll mostly see it in texts and comments. The tone is excited and friendly.
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so/kinda + tuff; that's tuff; a tuff + noun (fit, car, beat)
- your new trainers are so tuff, where did you get them?
- Did you hear the beat on his new track? That's actually tuff.
- he landed that skateboard trick on his first try, honestly tuff
What changed
First versionDear Mr Patel, the maths exam was really tuff, so I'd like to ask for extra lessons.
RevisionDear Mr Patel, the maths exam was really tough, so I'd like to ask for extra lessons.
The exam was difficult, and the word for that is ordinary tough. Writing tuff in an email to a teacher looks like a typo or social media slang. On top of that, slang tuff is praise, so the sentence reads as if the exam was awesome. The fix is to change that one word to tough.
Out loud, tuff and tough sound the same. That's tough means “that's hard, I'm sorry”: I failed my driving test again. — Oh, that's tough. Tuff is more often praise: That beat is tuff. But in texts, people sometimes reply that's tuff to bad news too, meaning “that's rough”, so it's the context that shows it's praise, and out loud, the excited tone too. Tuff is only for friends; in IELTS Speaking, say impressive or really cool, and in an essay, impressive.
Your turn
He showed me his new car and I couldn't stop staring at it, it's so ___.
Show the answer
tuff — You can't stop staring at the car, so it's impressive: tuff. Mid means so-so, and it doesn't fit with admiration in the same sentence.
Write a message to a friend about something that impressed you. Use tuff and say what it is and what you liked about it.
just saw Jake's new jacket, the black leather one with the red lining, so tuff
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