Apparently there is a wiki article on the word "Hella"

[Doesnotcompute83]

Although "Hella" is a word I would use in my conversations prior to Life is Strange, as it is a slang word that is commonly used where I grew up at - the Bay Area, I googled the word to see if it was local in Oregon since the game uses it a lot and people are facsinated by it here, on the forums. Googling the word, resulted in a wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella

While it says that the word is primarly used in Northern California, it is also a westcoast term. I also found my answer as the word, according to wikipedia, "Since the early '90s 'hella' has been used regularly in the Pacific Northwest as a common slang term, particularly in Seattle and Portland, Oregon. "

[dust]

im constantly annoyed by people that complain about "hella" as if everyone speaks the same everywhere

its a real word used by real people

[Alyx]

Cartman used 'Hella' in a song, so it must be a real word. :)

[angrybird]

well, how does helluva[en.wiktionary.org] sound to you :)

[Doesnotcompute83]

Originally posted by LIFE IS SUFFERING:

im constantly annoyed by people that complain about "hella" as if everyone speaks the same everywhere

its a real word used by real people

I agree. I was a bit dumbfounded when ppl complained about episode 1 having awful dialogue partly because of the word "hella". As someone who lives in the Bay Area for most of his life, I am used to the word, and I didn't noticed the word being used in the LIS until ppl pointed it out. After that, I've noticed it in the game.

However, I was told that it was mainly a Northern California/Bay Area word years before I played LIS, so I was a bit surprised that the word is in the game. Reading the article made me realized it is also used in the west coast thanks to '90s rap.

The funny thing is that everyone uses the word over here, though not often. I was told that the word was a local slang by a 50 year old teacher years ago. She too uses the word.

[Doesnotcompute83]

Originally posted by angrybird:

well, how does helluva[en.wiktionary.org] sound to you :)

Helluva is basically "hell-of-a" said quickly and having "ah" instead of "a" . It is also used a bit differently.

[angrybird]

Originally posted by Doesnotcompute83:

Originally posted by angrybird:

well, how does helluva[en.wiktionary.org] sound to you :)

Helluva is basically "hell-of-a" said quickly and having "ah" instead of "a" . It is also used a bit differently.

Oh, I see, thanks

[Doesnotcompute83]

Originally posted by angrybird:

Originally posted by Doesnotcompute83:

Helluva is basically "hell-of-a" said quickly and having "ah" instead of "a" . It is also used a bit differently.

Oh, I see, thanks

To clarify, Helluva would be used in sentences like "I have had a helluvah time with Chloe last night" wherea "hella" would be used in sentences like "That game is hella (or hecka if you do not want to say hell) cool."

[Shalkka]

I think hella is derived from helluva to fill adjective niches. "Helluva" is also more gigantic while "hella" is sharp in its meaning. This is somewhat strange for english which is pretty comfortable to have its adjectives, substantives and verbs as homophones. Althought there are some semantic differences if one says "Life is boring as hell", "Life is hella boring" or "Life is hellisingly boring".

[whitecrow]

Originally posted by Doesnotcompute83:

I was a bit dumbfounded when ppl complained about episode 1 having awful dialogue partly because of the word "hella".

It was because they kept using it in places where it didn't even make sense.

[Alyx]

Originally posted by Doesnotcompute83:

Helluva is basically "hell-of-a" said quickly and having "ah" instead of "a" . It is also used a bit differently.

Hella means almost the same as helluva; but, in contrast to what ppl seem to think, hella is not short for hell(of)a, but rather 'hell of' (sans the -a suffix), used adjectively. Same as kinda meaning 'kind of.' Or sorta meaning 'sort of.'

Therefore, strictly speaking, 'I had a hella good time' actually means 'I had a hellishly good time' rather than 'I had a hell of a good time.' It just so happens these two phrases are kinda interchangeable. It becomes clearer when you say 'You are hella awesome!' Here you can see that 'You are hell of awesome!' still works, sorta, but 'You are hell of an awesome!' is just gibberish.

[Lonesomepoet]

Originally posted by LIFE IS SUFFERING:

im constantly annoyed by people that complain about "hella" as if everyone speaks the same everywhere

You mean they dont?

[Jeckenn]

Likely the devs or Christian Divine the lead writer saw this and decided it was a good thing to use in the game, good on them for doing that too! :)