Nadsat is a mode of speech used by the "nadsat", members of the teen subculture in the novel "A Clockwork Orange". The narrator and protagonist of the book, Alex, uses it in first-person style to relate the story to the reader. He also uses it to communicate with other characters in the novel, such as his "<abbr title="close friends">droogs</abbr>", parents, victims and any authority-figures with whom he comes in contact. As with many speakers of non-standard varieties of English, Alex is capable of speaking standard English when he wants to. It is not a written language: the sense that readers get is of a transcription of vernacular speech.