God screw the goddamn queen
August 16, 2012 1:51 PM Subscribe
Universal swear words in latin-american spanish? All I know is Mexican.
I would like to put "fucking brits" in my FB status update. The more vulgar and expressive the better.
In Mexican slang, I would've written it as "pinches ingleses putos culeros"...but this does little to show my solidarity with the rest of Latin America, much less Ecuador.
Please, no commentary on the rightness or wrongness of UK vs. Mr. Assange. Thank you.
I would like to put "fucking brits" in my FB status update. The more vulgar and expressive the better.
In Mexican slang, I would've written it as "pinches ingleses putos culeros"...but this does little to show my solidarity with the rest of Latin America, much less Ecuador.
Please, no commentary on the rightness or wrongness of UK vs. Mr. Assange. Thank you.
Response by poster: Oh, and if it is not clear enough, I am interested in informed knowledge of what swear words work universally across Latin America, in current, contemporary slang. Not in Spain. Not words that work in country X but not Y. Not words that you may have heard from a spanish-speaking friend, but that you have definitely heard used across most of Latin America, especially Ecuador and Central-America.
Thank you.
posted by wutangclan at 1:58 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Thank you.
posted by wutangclan at 1:58 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
hijos de puta is pretty universal.
posted by drlith at 1:59 PM on August 16, 2012 [2 favorites]
posted by drlith at 1:59 PM on August 16, 2012 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Wouldn't it be one of the conjugations of chingar?
I was under the impression that this is mostly Mexican...if not, do please let me know.
posted by wutangclan at 2:02 PM on August 16, 2012
I was under the impression that this is mostly Mexican...if not, do please let me know.
posted by wutangclan at 2:02 PM on August 16, 2012
I was under the impression that this is mostly Mexican...if not, do please let me know.
My Spanish is mostly Carribean and when I dropped a computer on my foot in the Miami office and iCHINGA! emerged from my lips, the Argentinians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Panamanians I worked with all gasped. Sooooo.....take that for what it's worth.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:04 PM on August 16, 2012 [8 favorites]
My Spanish is mostly Carribean and when I dropped a computer on my foot in the Miami office and iCHINGA! emerged from my lips, the Argentinians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans and Panamanians I worked with all gasped. Sooooo.....take that for what it's worth.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:04 PM on August 16, 2012 [8 favorites]
Chingar was used extensively during my time in Paraguay/Argentina, as was hijo de puta.
posted by zug at 2:05 PM on August 16, 2012
posted by zug at 2:05 PM on August 16, 2012
I'd suggest replacing "brits" with "David Cameron". It would be more accurate and most of the brits would agree with you.
posted by BinaryApe at 2:10 PM on August 16, 2012 [3 favorites]
posted by BinaryApe at 2:10 PM on August 16, 2012 [3 favorites]
Some words, like chingar are universally understood even if not used.
riffing on drlith, I once heard a Puerto Rican friend of mine exclaim "El gran coño de la putissima madre que le parió" which pretty much covers all your bases. In Caracas, where I learned my Spanish, it seemed like every third word was either "coño" "puta" or "madre" but YMMV.
You have seen this, right?
posted by ambrosia at 2:11 PM on August 16, 2012 [3 favorites]
riffing on drlith, I once heard a Puerto Rican friend of mine exclaim "El gran coño de la putissima madre que le parió" which pretty much covers all your bases. In Caracas, where I learned my Spanish, it seemed like every third word was either "coño" "puta" or "madre" but YMMV.
You have seen this, right?
posted by ambrosia at 2:11 PM on August 16, 2012 [3 favorites]
Coño, this one comes out of my mouth about ten times a day.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:14 PM on August 16, 2012
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:14 PM on August 16, 2012
Vete a la mierde, hijo de puta, cabron!
Sooooo California!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:29 PM on August 16, 2012
Sooooo California!
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:29 PM on August 16, 2012
Believe it or not "Fucking Motherfucker" seemed a lot more universal & locally powerful during my time in Latin America (from Central America, to Argentina, Spain) than any of the local phrases.
posted by Kruger5 at 3:17 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Kruger5 at 3:17 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
vas a coger is a personal favourite although I suspect it is particular to Argentina. it also has the amusing side effect of sounding like "electric teakettle" in german.
posted by elizardbits at 3:38 PM on August 16, 2012
posted by elizardbits at 3:38 PM on August 16, 2012
Me cago en la madre de ___ (insert whose mother you want to shit on)
Caguense en su madre __ or Cagate en tu madre, ___ (depending on how many people you want to shit on)
I am a native Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico. These are pretty universally used and/or understood, and convey the feelings that you seem to want to convey.
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:43 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Caguense en su madre __ or Cagate en tu madre, ___ (depending on how many people you want to shit on)
I am a native Spanish speaker from Puerto Rico. These are pretty universally used and/or understood, and convey the feelings that you seem to want to convey.
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:43 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
The word chingar is pretty much used all over but not everyone uses it as an expletive. In PR, for example, it's pretty much just used as a word for having sex.
With all due respect to other posters who have tried to help here, there are a lot of incorrect conjugations and spellings in previous replies, so if you see something you like you might want to spell-check it!
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:47 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
With all due respect to other posters who have tried to help here, there are a lot of incorrect conjugations and spellings in previous replies, so if you see something you like you might want to spell-check it!
posted by DrGirlfriend at 3:47 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Well, it's not so much as swear words being in regular use thoughout Latin America, more like they are usually known (from tv, music, news, whatever). Here in Argentina if you stumble on someone going creative with coños or chingados, most of us locals will understand you are quite high in the pissed off scale and will act accordingly helpful or outraged at your potty mouth according to situation. But for a local to start with that kind of swearing will baffle other locals, and mainly sound pretentious. I would risk "mierda!" as the one swear word that is perhaps truly all around Latin American. Hijo de puta has a pretty good chance for universality too, though Mexicans probably prefer their own more colorful ways of disparaging one's ancestry.
posted by Iosephus at 4:15 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by Iosephus at 4:15 PM on August 16, 2012 [1 favorite]
Mexican here.
___ hijo de puta is, I think, the most universal way to express your disapproval towards somebody. Dr Girlfriend's and adamvasco's suggestions are also good (but it would be vete a la mierda, ____.
I've heard cabrón is a term of endearment somewhere.
posted by clearlydemon at 5:47 PM on August 16, 2012
___ hijo de puta is, I think, the most universal way to express your disapproval towards somebody. Dr Girlfriend's and adamvasco's suggestions are also good (but it would be vete a la mierda, ____.
I've heard cabrón is a term of endearment somewhere.
posted by clearlydemon at 5:47 PM on August 16, 2012
Response by poster: With all due respect to other posters who have tried to help here, there are a lot of incorrect conjugations and spellings in previous replies
Yeah, I noticed that, which instills little faith.
posted by wutangclan at 8:45 PM on August 16, 2012
Yeah, I noticed that, which instills little faith.
posted by wutangclan at 8:45 PM on August 16, 2012
Apparently this is a classic of Ecuadorian insult which became a kind of meme.
It was first "expressed" in the Ecuadorian parliament: "No podemos olvidar de la frase célebre que utilizaba aquel gran estadista ecuatoriano e ídolo de Teleamazonas, Ecuavisa, y diarios El Universo y el Uni(Per)verso, Jaime Nebot, al dialogar con sus colegas en el Congreso: "Mamarracho hijueputa... maricón... ven aca para mearte hijueputa." Also, he says in the middle of the diatribe: "vestido de frac con pipa y tabaco ingles COJUDO" which sounds appropriate to the situation. I'm sure you can paraphrase it in some way.
posted by Marauding Ennui at 2:00 AM on August 17, 2012
It was first "expressed" in the Ecuadorian parliament: "No podemos olvidar de la frase célebre que utilizaba aquel gran estadista ecuatoriano e ídolo de Teleamazonas, Ecuavisa, y diarios El Universo y el Uni(Per)verso, Jaime Nebot, al dialogar con sus colegas en el Congreso: "Mamarracho hijueputa... maricón... ven aca para mearte hijueputa." Also, he says in the middle of the diatribe: "vestido de frac con pipa y tabaco ingles COJUDO" which sounds appropriate to the situation. I'm sure you can paraphrase it in some way.
posted by Marauding Ennui at 2:00 AM on August 17, 2012
I'm Peruvian.
Chinga, cabron, cagar en la madre de_____ and coño are not used in Peru (understood due to TV and/or common sense, yes, but not used at all)
puta, putamadre, hijo de puta, (vete a la) mierda, conchatumadre, cojudo/a are the most usual Peruvian swearwords.
Somehow it feels really nasty to type swearwords in my mother tongue.
posted by Tarumba at 11:34 PM on August 17, 2012
Chinga, cabron, cagar en la madre de_____ and coño are not used in Peru (understood due to TV and/or common sense, yes, but not used at all)
puta, putamadre, hijo de puta, (vete a la) mierda, conchatumadre, cojudo/a are the most usual Peruvian swearwords.
Somehow it feels really nasty to type swearwords in my mother tongue.
posted by Tarumba at 11:34 PM on August 17, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 1:55 PM on August 16, 2012