Swearing in (Parisian) French

[Ryusenshi]

Swearing in (Parisian) French

For everyone who wants to jurer comme un charretier (literally "swear like a wagoner"), here is a primer on swearing in Parisian French. (Remember that swearing in Québec French is very different!)

Overview

Compared to English-speaking folks, the French use very little religious-based swearing (again, things are quite different in Canada). Not because it's taboo, quite the opposite: religious swearing has pretty much lost its bite, and now sounds a bit quaint. Mon Dieu, doux Jésus (= "my God, sweet Jesus") are things your grandma could say. Amusingly, when I hear teens speaking, I think they use the English oh my God more often than the native oh mon Dieu. The only ones that are still in somewhat frequent use are bon Dieu (good God) and nom de Dieu (name of God).

So, the French will usually swear by bodily functions, and sex-related words. Luckily, there is a plethora of those to choose from.

A word about gender: as is usual in Romance languages, adjectives and nouns can have both a masculine and a feminine form. For swear words, it's common for the feminine forms to have fairly different connotations from the masculine ones.

Con/conne

A general-purpose insult: it can mean "asshole" or "moron". Originally it meant female genitalia (it's a cognate of "cunt"), but this use sounds quite dated now. Due to overuse, it's now less offensive than it used to be, but still considered a swear word.

This word can be used as a noun: bande de cons, c'est un con (a bunch of morons, he's an asshole); it's also an adjective: il est un peu con, c'est vraiment con (he's a bit stupid, this is fucking stupid). The feminine forme is normally conne: elle est vraiment conne, mais quelle conne. Lately though, I've been hearing con as an adjective even for females, such as elle est un peu con.

Quel con ! can be used as an insult, or to underline your own stupidity ("what an idiot I've been!").

Another variant: à la con, to describe an object or an activity. Un jeu à la con = "a silly game". Une émission à la con = "a shitty TV program".

Derived words:

• connard/connasse: a stronger variant, very similar to "bastard" (i.e. it means the recipient is a jerk rather than stupid).
• connerie: bullshit. Faire une connerie: to do something very stupid. La connerie humaine: human stupidity. Dire des conneries: to talk rubbish, to bullshit.
• déconner: to do or say very stupid things. Arrête de déconner: stop fooling around, stop kidding me. Mais non, je déconne: I'm only kidding, I'm being silly. My personal catchphrase is Faut pas que déconner.

Salaud/salope

One of those words that has very different connotations depending on gender. The masculine form salaud means "asshole, bastard".Quel salaud = "what a bastard". Cet enfant de salaud = "this son of a bitch".

On the other hand, the feminine form salope is closer to "slut", meaning sexually depraved. As a result, it is quite stronger than its male counterpart. (You could draw parallels with "bastard/bitch" in English).

• saloperie: something dirty. Laisse pas traîner ces saloperies: don't leave this bullshit around. Choper une saloperie: to catch a disease (especially an STD).
• saloper: to make a mess. Elle a salopé mon boulot: she screwed up my word.

Merde

Quite simply "shit", either litterally or not: c'est quoi cette merde ? = "what's this shit?", être dans la merde = "to be in deep shit". Very popular as an expletive: Meeeerrde !!! = "Shiiiiiiiiiittt!!!". Variants: Oh merde, merde alors.

You can follow a noun with de merde: un film de merde = "a shitty movie".

There is a superstition that saying bonne chance (good luck) actually brings bad luck, so people sometimes say merde to wish good luck to someone (think "break a leg" in English).

• merdier: a bloody mess.
• emmerder: to bother someone, or to bore someone. Ce type m'emmerde = "this guy's a pain in the ass". Un livre emmerdant = "a fucking boring book". (Variant: emmerdifiant). Added by request: Je t'emmerde = "screw you".
• merdique: shitty.
• se démerder: to get oneself out of trouble. Démerde-toi: deal with it on your own. Famous comedian Coluche joked that he wanted to have as an epitaph Et maintenant, démerdez-vous "And now, deal with this shit by yourselves".

Chier

Literally "to shit". Je vais chier = "I'm gonna take a dump". Often used in the figurative sense. Faire chier: to annoy, to bore. Fait chier!, a generic expletive. Chiant: very boring, or annoying.

Cul

"Arse, buttocks". The L is silent: /ky/ (exactly like the letter Q, which amuses grade-school pupils to no end). It's used pretty much exactly like the English "ass", so no problem here. Un joli petit cul: "a nice piece of ass"; botter le cul à quelqu'un: "to kick someone's ass". Do not mix up merci beaucoup "thank you very much" and merci beau cul "thank you, nice ass".

The word can be used to refer to sex in general. Un film de cul = "a porn film". Une histoire de cul = either "an affair" or "a dirty joke". Un plan cul = "a booty call". Blagues de cul = "dick jokes".

Derived expressions:

• cul-de-sac: dead-end. cul-de-bouteille: bottom of a bottle. Bizarrely not considered vulgar despite their origin.
• avoir du cul: to be a lucky bastard. Variant: avoir le cul bordé de nouilles (litterally "to have one's ass covered with noodles". No, it doesn't make any sense.)
• enculer: to bugger, to sodomize. Can be in the figurative sense. Je me suis fait enculer par les impôts = "I got screwed by the taxes".
• enculé: a very strong insult. Because of its homophobic connotations, this one has become somewhat taboo in recent times.

Couilles

By far the most common slang word for testicles: "balls, bollocks". It's grammatically a feminine word, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever: what could be more quintessentially masculine than a pair of bollocks?? (No offence to transwomen, I mean.) Un coup de pied dans les couilles: a kick in the nuts.

• Casser les couilles: to get on someone's nerves. ça me casse les couilles, this pisses me off (this one is used even by females).
• Je m'en bats les couilles: I don't give a fuck. Again, even females use this one.
• avoir des couilles: to have balls. T'as pas les couilles de faire ça: you don't have the balls to do that. Variant: avoir des couilles au cul (litt. "to have ball up one's ass". Someone said about Maréchal Lyautey, a courageous military leader rumored to be gay, that Il a des couilles au cul, même si ce ne sont pas toujours les siennes: he had balls up his ass, even if they aren't always his.)
• partir en couille: to go completely wrong, to go apeshit.
• il y a une couille dans le potage: there's a hitch somewhere.

Chatte

Originally "she-cat", it means the female genitalia; just like the English word "pussy". I'd say it's a bit more offensive than "pussy", but not as much as "cunt".

Other words for the same body part: minou (also from cats, this one is more childish), moule (litt. "mussel").

Bite

"Cock, dick". Very common. It's a feminine word (which, again, is completely absurd, but hey).

Synonyms: zizi, noeud, teub, zguègue, zboub.

Nichons

"Boobs, tits". A masculine word (ditto). Other words: nénés, doudounes, loches...

Pute

Quite simply "whore": originally a prostitute, by extention a promiscuous woman. Nothing much to add here.

• faire la pute: to whore oneself out.
• un coup de pute: a low blow, a dirty trick.
• fils de pute: son of a bitch. Also sa mère la pute: motherfucker.
• putassier: overly commercial. Leur dernier album est vraiment putassier: their latest record is really a sellout.

Putain

An etymological doublet of the previous one; but it has taken a life of its own, and now rarely refers to an actual woman. Mostly, it's used as a general expletive, comparable to the English "fuck".

Actually, it's the closest rival to "fuck" in terms of syntactic versatility: un putain de bon film, a fucking good movie; on s'est putain de planté, we done fucked up; un putain de salaud, a fucking asshole.

Bordel

Originally a brothel or bordello, it can be used to mean "a fucking mess": C'est quoi ce bordel ?, what's this racket? Foutre le bordel, to make a bloody mess. It is also used as a general expletive, Bordel !.

Baiser

As a verb, it means "to fuck, to screw". Ils ont baisé comme des bêtes = "they fucked like rabbits". J'ai pas baisé depuis des mois = "I haven't had any in months". On s'est fait baiser = "we got screwed".

It's tricky, because as a noun, un baiser means a kiss, and is perfectly innocent. In older works, you can still find the verb baiser meaning "to kiss", which makes modern readers blink twice (think when you read that a character "ejaculates" in 19th century novels). Today, "to kiss" is embrasser.

There are lots of synonyms: niquer, tirer un coup, sauter... Nique ta mère = literally "screw your mom", or loosely "motherfucker" (very common in rap music).

Foutre

A tricky one. It's an irregular verb, and its meaning varies widely depending on syntax.

As a transitive verb, it's a vulgar way to say "to put". T'as foutu de la peinture partout: you've spilled paint everywhere. Où j'ai foutu mes clés ?: where the hell did I put my keys?

As a reflexive verb, it means "not to care". Je m'en fous: I don't care. Je me fous de sa vie: I don't care about this guy. A stronger form: Je n'en ai rien à foutre = "I don't give a damn". (Though Rhett Butler's line was bowdlerized to c'est le cadet de mes soucis, that's the least of my concerns.)

As an adjective, foutu means "broken, spent". Je suis foutu: depending on context, it can mean "I'm spent" or "I'm screwed". C'est foutu: "it's done, it's doomed". Sa voiture est foutue = "his car is FUBAR".

As a noun, du foutre means "semen".

Added by request: Va te faire foutre means "fuck off, go fuck yourself".

Branler

As a reflexive verb, se branler means "to wank, to jerk off".

When not used reflexively, it can mean "to be lazy". Qu'est-ce que tu branles ?: what the fuck are you doing? (with the implication that you're beating around the bush and should be doing something else right now.) J'en ai rien à branler is similar to rien à foutre as seen above: "I don't give a flying fuck".

Un branleur means a lazy person; "wanker" in the UK is actually very similar.

Espèce de

Not a swear word by itself, but a frequent addition: when saying an insult to someone, you can add espèce de in front of it. It works with Espèce de connard, espèce d'enfoiré = "you bastard".

Note that there's no direct equivalent to the English practice of adding "You" in front of an insult, so espèce de sort of works as a loose equivalent.

Cuss words chaining

As anyone who watched The Matrix Reloaded should know (just in case: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfnmkgmUDW4), the French love to strings insults together. Just use any cuss words, linked together by de, trying not to repeat yourself (or, for effect, repeat the same one thrice in a row). Pay no attention to meaning, or even lexical categories: just keep going, until you either run out of breath, out of words, or feel that you have vented enough. Putain is a good starter; ta mère (your mom) is a nice ending point.

Putain de merde and bordel de merde are particularly common (I've seen BDM online as an acronym for the latter).

A sample, off the top of my head:

• Putain de bordel de poil de cul d'enfoiré de fait chier de sa race.
• Bordel de fait chier de fait chier de fait chier de ta mère.

[Nooj]

Magnificent work.

Quick questions, I don't see je t'emmerde (screw you) there.

Neither niquer, like the band NTM.

[Ryusenshi]

Well, I don't claim to have made a comprehensive lexicon. But I've added your suggestions.

I could add some slurs, too.

[finlay]

Tabarnak!

On a more serious note, I know most of these just by watching a lot of French movies in my late teens.

Also I had a kid's French book that literally taught you how to say "fuck you" (Vas te faire foutre or something) although it said "too rude to translate". It was alongside some more old-fashioned and mild insults like "mon œuil". On second thoughts it might not have actually been for five year old kids but it had funny illustrations, so my mum was happy to let me read it.

[Ryusenshi]

And now a few slurs! As a general rule, do not use the following words.

Racial slurs

Nègre

Nègre is of course "nigger". Very much taboo nowadays. Some Black authors such as Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor tried to reclaim it, but it never really worked.

Sidenote: speaking only for myself here, I don't have the kind of visceral reaction to the word that Americans seem to have for "nigger". I feel that the word was so insulting and so taboo that it went almost unused, and to me it sounds... well, almost quaint. If I heard someone using nègre as an insult, my gut reaction wouldn't be "wow what a racist douche", so much as "hey, did this guy time-travel from the 19th century?". Of course, that's only my opinion, i.e. that of a white, middle-class, somewhat sheltered guy; actual black people will certainly feel otherwise.

Bizarrely enough, the same word has another use that's not usually offensive: in literature, un nègre means "a ghostwriter". (Critics of Alexandre Dumas had a field day here, since he was of mixed ancestry and used collaborators/ghostwriters.)

Derived words: une négresse is a female nigger; un négrier is a slaver.

Other slurs for black people: négro, bamboula (for the last one, see here).

Interestingly, French people sometimes use the English word black as a euphemism for noir. There's also renoi, which is verlan slang for noir.

Bougnoule

Person of Arab or Maghrebi origin. Very offensive.

(Wiktionary suggests "camel fucker" as an English equivalent, which is both offensive and hilarious.)

Some less offensive slang words: beur (verlan for arabe), or rebeu (verlan for beur, a rare case of a word that was verlanized twice). These two have actually been used with pride by the people concerned. In 1998, the French national football team (who won the World Cup) was called black-blanc-beur because it included Black, White and Maghrebi players, and was held as a model of racial integration.

Niakoué

Variously written niakoué, niacoué, niaquoué. It means a person of Asian origin (especially Vietnam), and is similar to the English "gook". Again, very offensive.

Chinetoque is a slur specific to Chinese people.

Racaille

A weird semi-example. Originally it's a cognate of "rascal", and used to be a general term for a rowdy or dishonest person. But lately, it's mostly been used to refer to a specific type of person: typically lower-class, with a specific taste in clothes and a fondness for rap music, and disproportionately including people of Maghrebi origin. It's somewhat similar to "thug" in the US. There's also a verlan form caillera.

As a result, it's sometimes considered racist, although etymologically it has nothing to do with race. There's no real reason for the word to be offensive (and some people have used it as a badge of honor), but it's easier to just avoid using it altogether.

Youpin

Slur for Jewish people: "Hebe, kike".

Country-specific slurs

These ones tend to be less offensive than the ones above. Still, I would avoid using them unless you really know what you're doing.

rosbif: person from England, Brit. (Comes from "roast beef"). More humorous than really offensive, actually.

rital: Italian, wop.

ricain: American, or more closely, 'Murican. Also amerloque.

boche: person from Germany, Kraut. Quite offensive.

paki or pak-pak: Pakistani. I really don't like this one.

romanos, romanichels: Romani people. There are various words for them: gitans, manouches, tsiganes, bohémiens which aren't really offensive, but not recommended either (the recommended word is Roms).

Homophobic slurs

Pédé means a gay man. Quite offensive, although I've heard some gay people trying to reclaim it.

I've already mentioned enculé.

Tapette, tarlouze, pédale are for effeminate gay men, quite similar to "faggot". They're grammatically feminine, and deliberately so, insinuating that gay men aren't real men.

Travelo means transvestite or transsexual (the kind of people who use this sort of words typically don't care about the difference).

Gouine means "dyke". Other words for lesbians include brouteuse de gazon (literally "grass muncher", compare "carpet muncher"); and camionneuse = "butch lesbian" (literally "female truck driver").

A side note: in French, homo is perfectly neutral and has no negative connotations whatsoever.

[Ryusenshi]

Tabarnak!

I said that Canadian French was very different!

Also I had a kid's French book that literally taught you how to say "fuck you" (Vas te faire foutre or something)

I hadn't thought about Va te faire foutre! I've added it.

[Viktor77]

This is great. You're missing a few though.

Putain de merde is perhaps the most common swear word I heard in Belgium (and among my French colleagues) with the exception of putain alone.

Garse is one of my favourites. It means cunt, prostitute, it's extremely au premier degrès. Interesting, because the masculine gars just means dudes (but in a neutral way like American "you guys," women can use it about women).

In Liège we had some colorful swears from Walloon. One was nom di djeu (of course being Walloon for nom de dieu). We also used barraki which is the Belgian equivalent to un beauf I suppose. Lowerclass people who often dress in tracksuits and act very "lower class." Think chavs in England.

In Brussels you can say god verdomme which is like damn and comes from Dutch.

Among racial slurs there was un paki for un nightshop ie. a liquor store on the corner often owned by Pakistanis. I guess you call these tabac in France?

A few others that are coming to mind, un branleur/se for a wanker/jerk which of course is connected to se branler or to jack off/masturbate* (un branleur de première is used to mean someone who's really lazy). Une bifle or a dickslap. Envoyer chier à to tell some to fuck off.

Oh, and as I said elsewhere apparently une bamboula or a shindig can be considered a racial slur.

*Apparently, after reading a bit more on this particular word it is no longer connected to se branler and just means a jerk but one who's lazy. I don't know if 'wanker' has a sexual connotation anymore because I'm not English so perhaps 'wanker', while a good literal translation, is not actually the best translation. But then again you can also say Tu te branles, toi? in a non-sexual way too to mean you have nothing else to do (except jerk off I suppose).

Oh and then I forgot the whole array of wonderful expletives that are only used to sound funny like zut alors, fichtre, diantre, parbleu.

[mèþru]

zut alors is barely swearing. Also, I thought rosbif is just plain Anglo-French mutual taunting rather than an offensive term.

[Ryusenshi]

This is great. You're missing a few though.

Again, that's not a complete lexicon of French slang. Which would be the size of a dictionary, because the French have a slang word for everything.

Putain de merde is perhaps the most common swear word I heard in Belgium (and among my French colleagues) with the exception of putain alone.

I'll add this one.

Garce is one of my favourites. It means cunt, prostitute, it's extremely au premier degré.

For me it's far less offensive than that. Even "bitch" sounds stronger than garce.

In Liège we had some colorful swears from Walloon. One was nom di djeu (of course being Walloon for nom de dieu). We also used barraki which is the Belgian equivalent to un beauf I suppose. Lowerclass people who often dress in tracksuits and act very "lower class." Think chavs in England.

In Brussels you can say god verdomme which is like damn and comes from Dutch.

I'm not very familiar with Belgian swearing.

Among racial slurs there was un paki for un nightshop ie. a liquor store on the corner often owned by Pakistanis. I guess you call these tabac in France?

For me paki is a slur for Pakistanis (which I'll add). Liquor stores aren't that common in France, since most supermarkets sell alcohol anyway. A bureau de tabac (or simply tabac) typically sells cigarettes (duh), stamps, lottery tickets and scratch cards.

A few others that are coming to mind, un branleur/se for a wanker/jerk which of course is connected to se branler or to jack off/masturbate* (un branleur de première is used to mean someone who's really lazy).

I will add branler and branleur.

Oh, and as I said elsewhere apparently une bamboula or a shindig can be considered a racial slur.

I did mention bamboula as a racial slur.

[richard1631978]

zut alors is barely swearing. Also, I thought rosbif is just plain Anglo-French mutual taunting rather than an offensive term.

Goddamn is another French term for the English.

[jal]

In Brussels you can say god verdomme which is like damn and comes from Dutch.

With the risk of derailing this otherwise great thread, "godverdomme" is the worst (i.e. most offensive) single swear word in Dutch, even though whole tribes use it on a daily basis. It's much stronger than "damn".


JAL

[Ars Lande]

Among racial slurs there was un paki for un nightshop ie. a liquor store on the corner often owned by Pakistanis. I guess you call these tabac in France?

Arabe du coin is the closest equivalent I think. They do sell liquor (but not cigarettes) but they're a bit more like mom and pop grocery stores. Tabac is a tobacconist (they have a monopoly on cigarette sales here).

Also, I thought rosbif is just plain Anglo-French mutual taunting rather than an offensive term.

Goddamn is another French term for the English.

Godamn/Godon is very dated. rosbif isn't particularly friendly, but it's more used ironically these days - we don't hate the English like we used to!

[Ryusenshi]

We also used barraki which is the Belgian equivalent to un beauf I suppose. Lowerclass people who often dress in tracksuits and act very "lower class." Think chavs in England.

Lower-class people who dress in tracksuits? That sounds like the racailles which I mentioned in another post.

Beauf is a bit different (though there can be some overlap). A beauf can be middle-class, and indeed very critical of lower-class people. I can imagine a beauf who votes for the far-right, hoping for them to rid the country of those racailles.

Godamn/Godon is very dated.

Very dated indeed. And by "dated", I mean "I wouldn't even recognize it, if I hadn't seen it in 18th century literature".