AI Pirate Prompts

Copy-and-paste prompts that put ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot in pirate mode for the day, or turn a boring update into something with a parrot on its shoulder.

How this works

Every prompt below is plain text. Copy it, paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot or whatever assistant you use, and replace the bits in [square brackets]. The prompts all tell the assistant to keep facts, numbers and names unchanged, because a pirate voice is only fun until it quietly changes a meeting time.

To keep the accent on for a whole day rather than one chat, most assistants let you save standing instructions (look for custom instructions, personalisation, a project or a persona in the settings). Paste the pirate-mode prompt there in the morning and remove it at the end of the day, or your Friday self will be very confused on Monday.

Pirate mode for the rest of the day

Paste this as your first message. The last sentence matters: it gives you a way out.

For the rest of this conversation, reply as a pirate. Use ahoy, aye, matey, ye, yer, me hearties and arrr, and end most replies with a short pirate flourish. Keep every answer exactly as accurate, complete and useful as it would be in plain English; only the voice changes. Never change numbers, names, dates, URLs or code. If I say "avast, back to English", drop the accent immediately.

Rewrite an email or message

Works for a Slack update, a meeting invite or a birthday card.

Rewrite the message below in pirate speak. Keep every fact, name, date and number unchanged, keep it about the same length, and keep it polite enough to send to a colleague. Give me only the rewritten message.

Message:
[paste it here]

Standup or status update

Fill in the three brackets and it does the rest.

Turn this into a 60-second pirate standup: yesterday's plunder, today's heading and any storms ahead. Keep the real content intact.

Yesterday: [what you did]
Today: [what you will do]
Blockers: [anything in the way]

Pirate name and backstory

The name generator on our home page is faster; this one gives you a legend to go with it.

My name is [name] and my job is [job]. Give me a pirate name, a ship name and a three-sentence backstory that works my real job into a life of piracy. Keep it PG and make it funny rather than fearsome.

A sea shanty about your team

Sing it at the end of the call. Or do not; the threat is enough.

Write a four-verse sea shanty with a call-and-response chorus about [team or project]. Work in these three in-jokes: [one], [two], [three]. Keep the metre simple enough that people who cannot sing can shout it, and make the chorus easy to learn in one hearing.

A bedtime story

Change the age and the detail and it stays gentle.

Write a 400-word bedtime story for a [age]-year-old about a pirate who [detail, e.g. is scared of the dark, loses their hat, wants to be a cook]. Gentle, no violence, a small kindness at the heart of it, and everyone asleep by the last line.

A classroom worksheet

Teachers: ask for the answer key separately so it does not print on the sheet.

Write ten pirate-themed maths word problems for [year or grade level] covering [topic, e.g. dividing with remainders, compass directions and coordinates]. Number them, keep each under 40 words, then put the answers at the end under a separate heading.

Translate and explain

Good for learning the vocabulary rather than just wearing it.

Translate the paragraph below into pirate speak. Then list every pirate word or phrase you used with its plain-English meaning, one per line.

Paragraph:
[paste it here]

More jokes in a given style

Ours are on the jokes page; this gets you a fresh batch about your own office.

Write ten clean pirate jokes about [your workplace, industry or hobby]. Question-and-answer format, puns welcome, nothing that targets a real person. Rate each one out of ten for groan factor.

A pirate persona for a bot or custom assistant

For tools that let you save instructions for a project, a custom bot or a persona.

You are Cap'n [name], quartermaster of the good ship [ship]. Answer every question about [topic] accurately and helpfully, in a warm pirate voice, in under 120 words. Use ahoy, aye, matey and arrr naturally but never at the cost of clarity. Never alter numbers, names, dates, links or code. If someone asks you to drop the accent, do so at once and stay in plain English.

A pirate avatar (image tools)

Describe yourself honestly; the tool does the rest.

A portrait of [describe yourself: hair, glasses, beard, whatever people would recognise] as an 18th-century pirate captain: weathered tricorn hat, long dark coat, a ship's deck and stormy sea behind, warm lantern light, painted in the style of an old oil portrait. Friendly expression.

Three cautions

Proofread anything you send. Voice changes make small errors more likely and harder to spot; the prompts ask for facts to be kept, but check the date and the numbers yourself.
Do not paste confidential material into a public assistant to have it pirate-ified. The joke is not worth the leak.
Know the off switch. "Avast, back to English" works with the prompts above. So does starting a new chat.

Need raw material? The phrases and the jokes are all here, and the work and school page has ideas for what to do with the output.