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I come across these sorts of sentences frequently. I'd like to give more examples to be more precise.

Kill 'em homies.

Look at 'em idiots.

What do they really mean? I mean why add them in front of a plural noun? And is this an informal way of speaking?

Hellion
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Smrita
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    It's dialectical. If it makes you feel better, you can mentally substitute "those" for "them" (and "them" for "'em"). – Dan Bron Aug 13 '14 at 20:20
  • I'm British, and I often hear/use *them* instead of *those, but in my experience hardly anyone ever drops the initial "th" in that usage (despite the fact that we regularly do this when using them* in other contexts). I'm not so sure whether Americans are the same in this respect (but they're much more likely to render *them* as *dem* anyway, so things are already different). – FumbleFingers Aug 13 '14 at 20:41
  • @FumbleFingers, even us Chicagoans don't replace "them" with "dem", except in Saturday Night Live skits and if you're a gangster! (Rolling eyes) lol! – Kristina Lopez Aug 13 '14 at 22:40
  • You should also consider that your first example could well be, and your second example might possibly be, a simple omittted comma, changing the sense entirely. "Fight fiercely, Harvard", as Tom Lehrer sang. – Tim Lymington Aug 13 '14 at 22:50
  • ABCD goldfish? LMNO goldfish. OSAR goldfish. ICM! (dat's two 'em=them and one 'ey=they). – FumbleFingers Aug 14 '14 at 12:28

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