# T-shirt translation (Spanish?) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2020, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059 "2020-08-02T06:12:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/1 "2020-08-02T06:12:53Z")
I saw a T-shirt with Mickey Mouse Flipping the bird with the word, “PUDRANSE” under it. Google was no help (to me at least). ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/2 "2020-08-02T06:19:05Z")
pudran is the 3rd person plural of the verb pudrir = to rot. the ‘a’ makes it imperative and the ‘se’ makes it reflexsive. altho Ive never heard that phrase myself, I would translate it as “go rot (fuck?) yourselves” ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/3 "2020-08-02T06:20:42Z")
I just wikidictionaried it. I don’t read Spanish so I m not going to hazard a guess, but my money is on something R-rated, anatomical and very coarse, given my slight knowledge of medical Latin derivations. I’ll be watching to see what great minds say. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/4 "2020-08-02T13:14:03Z")
Doing a google image search of pudranse tells me it’s ‘fuck you’. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/5 "2020-08-02T14:44:54Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > PUDRANSE According to a class I took at Universidad Veritas in San Jose last summer, it is subtly different from “fuck you,” in that it means something more like “go fuck yourself,” which is a difference that is lost on most US English speakers, but it lacks the aggressiveness of “FUCK YOU,” which suggests “_I_ am going to fuck (figuratively) you.” The term, which does derive from the verb “rot,” is dismissive rather than aggressive. If someone threatens you, or directly insults you in a strong way, “Fuck you” is the response. “Go fuck yourself” is more of an obscene way of saying “Pound sand.” Spanish takes distinctions like these more seriously than English does. If someone annoys you, say, with his efforts to convert you to his religion, and you say “Fuck you,” you’ve really gone to far, and might earn some retaliation. “Go fuck yourself” is the expression you want." Or, at least, that is the case in Costa Rica, and I was told it is generally the case in Spanish-speaking countries as contrasted with English-speaking countries. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2020, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/6 "2020-08-02T21:54:06Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > If someone threatens you, or directly insults you in a strong way, “Fuck you” is the response. “Go fuck yourself” is more of an obscene way of saying “Pound sand.” Sounds like the exact same distinction between “Fuck you!” and “Fuck off!” in English. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Baggins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/87869e/32.png) [@Mr.Baggins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Baggins)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2020, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/7 "2020-08-05T20:46:53Z")
“Púdranse” is a PG13-rated “Fuck you”. It’s aggressive, but not profane. There’s not a good translation, but the meaning would be close to a “fugg you” or “fark you”. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2020, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/8 "2020-08-06T09:08:57Z")
Depends on where you are. In fairly formal Costa Rica (also, from what I understand, Honduras, although I haven’t been there), where “tu” is pretty much obsolete, and swearing just isn’t done in public, you don’t say “pudranse.” Not that you can’t tell someone off in Costa Rica-- you just use circumlocution. Which is why what is essentially a metaphor, “got rot,” carries a whollop. In Mexico, direct swear words are more part of everyday speech, yes, and “pudranse” is a playground word. FWIW, Costa Rica has a pretty rich vocabulary of circumlocutions, and things that you wouldn’t think mean something bad, but do (I had a long list of them from my conversational class, but I can’t find it right now). It’s also a “Su madre,” not a “Tu madre” country. Mexico wouldn’t get a lot of the circumlocutions, and uses “Tu madre.” ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/9 "2020-08-07T19:01:44Z")
Pudran is the third person plural so isn’t Pudranse, “they should fuck themselves”? Wouldn’t second person singular imperative be púdrase. ETA: regarding tone, perhaps the English ‘sod off’ is closer. I don’t recall ever hearing ‘fuck you’ from kids on a playground. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2020, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/10 "2020-08-07T21:31:14Z")
As a Salvadoran-American I have to report that [RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya) is on the right track, not as bad as “Fuck You”. Literally is telling others to rot. As an expression it translates as telling others that they must die and then rot in the open. It is more like telling others: “Curl up and die!” or “Go die (and rot in hell!)” ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/11 "2020-08-08T15:11:45Z")
Thanks everyone. Sorry if it appeared I bailed on the thread, I got logged out and couldn’t get back in. New PW so it’s all good. Thanks again. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2020, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/t-shirt-translation-spanish/917059/12 "2020-08-08T15:14:19Z")
Thanks for the vote of confidence! I was doing pretty well communicating in San Jose, but I never know how much of what I learned generalizes.