# Insults in foreign languages **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 11, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361 "2006-05-11T13:22:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/1 "2006-05-11T13:22:37Z")
I’m having tremendous fun leafing through “The Little Book of Essential Foreign Swear Words,” and testing them out on various people in the office. Bearing in mind that my language skills are up to the average Englishman (virtually nonexistent outside of a curry house or pasta den), please lend me your most favoured insults and swear words. Please also include phonetic pronunciation so I can accost my boss at every instance and in lots of languages… The latest is : [Argentine] Meado por los gatos. (Me addo pour loss gatt oss) = Pissed on by all the cats Slightly odd but a beauty [Spanish] Zorra (as it looks) = Bitch as in “Buenos dias zorra”. Said with a smile to my argentine boss this morning. And don’t worry about my future job prospects. For now. If what you are about to write is truly repulsive (which I encourage), you may want spoilers to spare the tender hearted. I yearn for your insults. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/2 "2006-05-11T14:18:33Z")
Russian: kozyol (accent on second syllable, hard ‘yo’ sound) it means goat. It is a very insulting thing to call another man (akin to a-hole). From prison slang for the male victim of sexual assault in jail. ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/3 "2006-05-11T14:35:30Z")
Afrikaans: _Jy is so deurmekaar soos 'n verkleurmannetjie op 'n smartie boks._ Phonetics: (remember, roll the r’s) Yay iss suah deermikahrr suewiss a fyrkleermunikee orp a smartie borks. Translation: You are as confused as a chameleon on a smartie box. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/4 "2006-05-11T14:38:05Z")
Japanese: baka (ばか) – meaning “idiot”. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/5 "2006-05-11T14:39:29Z")
Japanese: baka ( ばか ) – meaning “idiot”. (Without that automatic conversion into a Smilie) ---
**Author:** ![rinni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f6c823/32.png) [@rinni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rinni)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/6 "2006-05-11T14:39:37Z")
Here are couple in Serbian. My boyfriend wishes he had taught me romantic poetry instead, but that is so far from my style that it’s not even funny. “Ti si kurac na biciklu!” (You are a dick on a bicycle!) “Ти си курац на бициклу!” (The same, in Cyrillic.) “Marš u pičku materinu”, or “Марш у пичку материну” in Cyrillic is another. (Hope I did the Cyrillic right for that one.) “Go into your mother’s pussy!” If I remember correctly, he told me that is the literal translation but it’s used kind of like “fuck off”. I just googled and found a whole page of Serbian insults and swears, but there are non-worksafe images on it. If you want to see them, look for insultmonger. Some of these are really… colourful. 😃 They don’t have accents though, so I don’t know how to pronounce them, and I’m pretty sure some are misspelled (for example, I think kurats is supposed to be kurac), so be cautioned. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/7 "2006-05-11T14:53:01Z")
I don’t know how to say it in Czech, but “I’ll burn down your fish pond” is considered extremely offensive. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/8 "2006-05-11T14:57:13Z")
Lovely lovely. Keep em coming. I remembered one a friend taught me some time ago, no idea of how it’s spelt so going phonetic… [Cantonese] Dil lay lo mo (Deeeel layy lo mo) = go fuck your mother Grateful if someone can clean this one up. Also: [Spanish] Se puede beber el agua aqui o sabe a pis como vuestra cerveza? Can you taste the water here, or does it taste of piss like your beer? ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/9 "2006-05-11T15:00:31Z")
“Chinga tu madre!” (Cheengah too mahdray) Not really sure how that comes out, culturally, but it literally means “Fuck your mother!” in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/10 "2006-05-11T15:26:00Z")
Also, in Spanish, it is really difficult to have one curse word that means something for everyone in the world who speaks Spanish. There are tons of versions of the words, and they mean stuff based on where spoken. “Chingar”, for instance, means “to fuck” in Mexico, but means something more along the lines of “to work hard” or “to bother” in Spain. Googling, I found that “Chinga a tu madre” (I forgot the personal “a” above) means “rape your mother”, and is supposedly the strongest Mexican curse. (Cheen-gah ah too mahdray) You could just use “Joder!”, which is more universal and can be used as an interjection, like “FUCK!” (Ho-dare) Some more: “hijo de puta” (Hee-ho day pootah) - SOB “cabrón” (cah-braun) - Huge cultural thing. In Mexico, it is sort of like motherfucker, but is used to imply that someone’s SO is cheating on them and they are doing nothing about it. Huge insult. (Literally means “large goat”) “pendejo” (pendayho) - Translates to something like “ass hair” and is used to refer to someone as an idiot. Chavez famously called George a “pendejo” “coño” (kohno) - Somewhat like cunt, but a whole lot less offensive And now, maybe my last, “cagar” (kah-har) - to shit. This is fun because you can use it for all sorts of things, like, “I shit on God!” (¡Me cago en Dios! (May cah-ho in dee-ohs) or “I shit in the milk!” (¡Me cago en la leche! (May cah-ho in lah laychey)). ¡Maldita! Spanish is fun! ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/11 "2006-05-11T16:43:17Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Japanese: baka ( ばか ) – meaning “idiot”. > > (Without that automatic conversion into a Smilie) I think we covered this in GQ not too long ago, but just for the record, _baka_ can also be used affectionately to mean “crazy.” There isn’t really any word in Japanese that is out and out insulting – it’s more of the context and manner of speaking that conveys insult. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/12 "2006-05-11T20:36:27Z")
> [@BadBadger](#): > > I’m having tremendous fun leafing through “The Little Book of Essential Foreign Swear Words,” and testing them out on various people in the office. Bearing in mind that my language skills are up to the average Englishman (virtually nonexistent outside of a curry house or pasta den), please lend me your most favoured insults and swear words. > Please also include phonetic pronunciation so I can accost my boss at every instance and in lots of languages… > > The latest is : > > [Argentine] Meado por los gatos. (Me addo pour loss gatt oss) > = Pissed on by all the cats > Slightly odd but a beauty > > [Spanish] Zorra (as it looks) = Bitch > as in “Buenos dias zorra”. Said with a smile to my argentine boss this morning. > > And don’t worry about my future job prospects. For now. > If what you are about to write is truly repulsive (which I encourage), you may want spoilers to spare the tender hearted. I yearn for your insults. Hmm In German, would that be "An gepinkelt durch alle Katzen "? Sounds cute 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/13 "2006-05-11T23:57:34Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > “Chingar”, for instance, means “to fuck” in Mexico, but means something more along the lines of “to work hard” or “to bother” in Spain. Googling, I found that “Chinga a tu madre” (I forgot the personal “a” above) means “rape your mother”, and is supposedly the strongest Mexican curse. In Colombia, _chucha_ means armpit sweat. Here in Panama, _chucha_ means pussy. [And in Guatemala, I swear I once heard a woman shouting out _chuchas! chuchas!_ as she was selling some sort of empanada-like things.] Once a female Colombian friend of mine came in from the field all sweaty. She sniffed her armpit, and said _Creo que tengo chucha!_ (I think I have B.O.) I started to laugh, and she smacked me as soon as she realized she had said “I think I have a pussy!” in Panamanian Spanish. > [@](#): > > You could just use “Joder!”, which is more universal and can be used as an interjection, like “FUCK!” (Ho-dare) Although it literally means “fuck,” in practice it’s actually pretty mild, and is more like “screwed” in impact. > [@](#): > > “cabrón” (cah-braun) - Huge cultural thing. In Mexico, it is sort of like motherfucker, but is used to imply that someone’s SO is cheating on them and they are doing nothing about it. Huge insult. (Literally means “large goat”) Using this one incautiously is likely to get you a knife in the ribs. > [@](#): > > “pendejo” (pendayho) - Translates to something like “ass hair” and is used to refer to someone as an idiot. Chavez famously called George a “pendejo” Usually translated as “pubic hair.” > [@](#): > > “coño” (kohno) - Somewhat like cunt, but a whole lot less offensive Like _joder_, much less offensive than its literal meaning. Likewise _carajo_, “prick.” In my experience, both are frequently used by both sexes in mixed company. > [@](#): > > And now, maybe my last, “cagar” (kah-har) - to shit. This is fun because you can use it for all sorts of things, like, “I shit on God!” (¡Me cago en Dios! (May cah-ho in dee-ohs) or “I shit in the milk!” (¡Me cago en la leche! (May cah-ho in lah laychey)). More completely, _Me cago en la leche de tu puta madre!_, “I shit in the milk of your whore mother!” ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/14 "2006-05-12T00:06:15Z")
In Korean: Imi Chimi Paek Pojida. Translation: “Your mother’s a whore” Literally, “Your mother has a white [e.g–shaved] pussy.” “Sship-Pal Nom/Nyun” is another Koreanism meaning “fucking bastard/bitch” In Russian, of course, there’s "Yob Tvoyu, Mat’ " which means "Fuck your mother. Do _NOT_ use this expression. Ever. Even as a joke. This will get you shot to death in Brighton Beach, not to mention Moscow or St. Petersburg or anywhere else with people who have a chance in hell of understanding what you’re saying. I’m not kidding here. Just . . . don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Scuba\_Ben](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/278dde/32.png) [@Scuba\_Ben](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scuba_Ben)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/15 "2006-05-12T01:15:57Z")
In Hebrew: Lekh l’hisdayen. “Go fuck your self.” (When addressed to a female, say “L’khi” instead of “lekh.” Hebrew is a gender-positive language.) And yes, I have said the feminine form on occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/16 "2006-05-12T01:59:18Z")
Two of the most common ones in Quebec French: “Va chier” (va shee-ay) - go shit. “Mange de la marde” - eat shit. Easily combined for a double-whammy! ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/17 "2006-05-12T03:46:26Z")
And _Mon écoeurant_… Écoeurant is a very weird word that can mean either “amazing, great” or “dreadful” in context; but “mon écoeurant” is universally dreadful and basically means “you tiresome schmuck,” only sharper. _Non mais ça va pas la tête sti!_ - literally “No but is it not right [in] your head, communion wafer!” but really, “Are you out of your fucking mind!” There are also tons of great adjectives, like _ostineux_ (pigheaded), _chialeux_ (whiney), and _gossant_ (irritating). Finally, one of the most famous insults in Quebec political history occurred when Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau dismissed Premier Robert Bourassa succinctly and devastatingly as _un mangeur de hot dogs._ ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/18 "2006-05-12T04:02:36Z")
Saudi Arabian: _Ayri fik, ya qahbah_ May my penis be in thee, O harlot. Just lovely. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/19 "2006-05-12T06:20:56Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > I think we covered this in GQ not too long ago, but just for the record, _baka_ can also be used affectionately to mean “crazy.” There isn’t really any word in Japanese that is out and out insulting – it’s more of the context and manner of speaking that conveys insult. Plenty of insults in Japanese. He’s a couple. Pronouce “a” is in father, “i” as in Hawaii, “e” as in bed, “o” as in low and “u” as in _aho_ stupid, a fool, an asshole _chimpira_ a punk _manuke_ a dimwit _dasai_ unrefined, a hick If you want to hear more, get in my way when I’m trying to go home after a night a drinking and bring a notebook. I can fill pages. ---
**Author:** ![BadBadger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BadBadger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBadger)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2006, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361/20 "2006-05-12T08:16:08Z")
These are fab. Todays morning greeting was: "Me cago en la leche de tu puta madre!, “I shit in the milk of your whore mother!” Thanks to Calibro and Zeb’. Worked a treat. Seems like there is a lot of confusion going on in south america. Apparently the word for “pick up” in Spanish (or Mexican, can’t recall) means “to fuck” in Argentina. So people were saying “I’m going to go and pick up my mother”… with ensuing guffaws. **Millivora** , I only wish I could roll my R’s… grr **ouryL** , agreed. That is cute. And I have a German next door to impress. **Colibri** Armpit sweat. Pussy. That is too much of a [coincidence](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=371116) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/insults-in-foreign-languages/356361.md?page=2)