Ciao ragazzi! Are my Italian students ready to start learning some parolacce italiane? Or, as you call them, Italian swear words?
The Italian language is beautiful, melodic, and full of bad words. In fact, if you're not used to hearing swear words and insults in casual conversation, then strap yourself in because Italian society turns using curse words into an art form.
If you want to fit in with i veri italiani, you're going to have to start learning Italian insults and swear words so you can join real-life, everyday conversations.
If you're not sure where to start on this particularly colorful leg of your Italian language-learning journey, non ti preoccupare, plenty of italiani are happy to help!
Simone Fiorini made a great video that breaks down a whole list of Italian bad words.
Onestamente, he's just one of the dozens of creators who offer video lessons for people who want to learn a new language by picking up a few swear words in Italian. So, you'll have plenty to choose from!
To build off our "To Prego or not to Prego" article, which you can find here, the rest of this article will once again follow Riley, our student who wants to learn Italian, and his teacher!
Without further ado, santo cielo, non essere una mezza sega! Iniziamo!
- Ciao, Riley! Come va? Hai fatto il compito d'Italiano che ti ho dato? Non l'ha mangiato il cane, vero?
- Uh... Buongiorno, Maestra. Pardon my French but, holy crap, what did you just say?!
- Oh, Riley! I just wanted to get a little rise out of you!
- Why, though? I haven't even had my coffee yet...
- Because of today's topic.
- What's today's topic?
- Remember that South Park episode in which Cartman pretended to have Tourette's?
- No way.
- Way.
- Wait, are you serious? You are going to teach me how to swear in Italian?
- I'm going to teach you how to fucking swear in Italian.
- Holy shit!
- Holy shit indeed, Riley! Swearing is an important part of learning modern standard Italian! Even popular Italian dictionaries will have entire sections dedicated to it.
- You're fucking kidding!
-Certo che no! But let's try not to swear every other word, this is not a Scorsese film. But yeah, if you want to fit in with the locals we'd better get started so that you can use some curse words in everyday conversations.
- Let's fucking do this!
- This might have been a mistake...
You might be surprised to learn that swearing likely won't offend many people in Italy. Even Italians who don't use many curse words are likely used to hearing them from other people. It's more likely you'll offend an Italian by saying something personal about them or their family. You'll even have better luck offending an Italian by supporting a different soccer team!
- Alright, Riley, per cominciare let's start with a few Italian expressions that aren't that bad. They're like light curse words you'll hear kids use.
- Maestra, you want me to sound like a bambino?
- Riley, calm down, you won't sound like a child, but as I keep telling you, you have to walk before you can run!
- Maestra, I've been walking for ages, let me run!
- You will, Riley! As soon as you learn a couple of milder ways to express yourself in a, let's say, "colorful" way.
- Ugh, fine! These better be good, though!
- They are! Te lo prometto. Even I use these expressions instead of an actual Italian curse word from time to time! Okay, first, we'll start with the mild form of a few of the popular curse words I'll explain later. The first one replaces the word cazzo with cavolo which means cabbage.
- What does cazzo mean?
- Don't worry about that yet, Riley! We're doing the PG versions first.
- I thought you said I wouldn't sound like a little boy!
- Zitto, Riley, listen and learn!
Okay, so, usually, you'll say cavolo to express anger. You'll hear something like, "Che cavolo hai fatto?" which literally means, "What cabbage have you done?" to show that you're angry about something someone has done.
- Wow, how exciting, we're talking about cabbages now...
- In that case! However, you can also use it to mean "wow" in everyday speech. If you hear a kid go, "Wow, cavolo!" it usually means they're impressed by something.
- Okay, got it. At least this topic is easy!
- Riley, please. You and I both know that nothing is ever that simple in Italian.
- Why can't it ever be easy? At least it's a fun topic...
- That's the spirit, Riley! Now, another mild bad word you can use is coglione. It's a little more volgare than cavolo, but you still hear younger Italians use it without getting in trouble.
- Okay, what does it mean?
- I was getting to that! Okay, "coglione" means ball.
- I thought ball was palla.
- Not that kind of ball, Riley.
- A football?
- Not a football.
- A basketball?
- Not a basketball. Think "anatomy".
- Anatomy? Oh!!! Do you mean...?
- Yes. Yes, I do. So, you might use this word in a few ways.
- So kinda like "get off my back"?
- Exactly! Now, if you want to use an even milder version of this one, you can say (mi) hai rotto le scatole instead, which means "You broke my boxes." Or you can semplicemente say hai rotto which means "You broke", but it has an implied meaning without actually saying what they broke.
- That's a lot to remember, Maestra. Can't Italians just have, like, one swear word to cover all of them? Something like "fuck"?
- Oh, Riley, we're just getting fucking started! Now that we've covered the most common mild swear words you need to know, let's move on to the big stuff.
Uffa isn't exactly a swear word, but it's a word said in similar situations as many curse words. It's more of a sound like "ugh". It's usually used when someone's annoyed, bored, or in a bad mood.
- Alright, Riley, sei pronto to learn some more... "intense" Italian curse words?
- Sì, Maestra! Cavolo, sono pronto!
- Great use of the word, Riley! Okay, This section will be a little trickier, so you might want to take notes.
- Better if we don't leave a paper trail for this lesson.
- You have a point, Riley. Let's get started then!
Every part of Italy has different slang, which includes different spellings for more common words. If you hear someone say fangul then you're hearing a dialect way of saying fanculo. So it means the exact same thing.
- Okay, Riley, we'll start this section out easy because this is the "grown-up" version of both cavolo and coglione.
- Finally! I'm not sure I buy your idea that cavolo isn't just a kid's word!
- Riley, plenty of adults use cavolo...when they don't want to say cazzo.
Cazzo can have a few different meanings, but its rough translation is "dick". So, you might hear it used in a few different ways.
- That sounds very unpleasant! I can see why that would be a curse word.
- Exactly, Riley. However, there's more that might make you say "ouch". If you have a problem remembering and would prefer sticking to the expression hai rotto, you can also say "Hai rotto il cazzo".
- You broke my... Oh my gosh, Maestra! That's a horrible thing to think about!
- We're not quite done yet, Riley. I told you cazzo could mean a few different things. It can also mean "fuck" or "bloody hell" in certain situations. For example, if someone said something that doesn't make sense to you, you might say, "che cazzo dici?"
- Maestra, why is there always so much to remember?
- Because Italian is a language, not a shopping list. But you'll get the hang of things with some practice. In the meantime, are you ready to move on? We'll try to streamline the following few words so you don't get as confused.
- We're way past the point of me being confused.
- Okay, this is an easy one. Merda is another parolaccia you'll hear a lot, but it only has one meaning in English.
- Do I want to know?
- Of course you do! You said so yourself. You want to swear like a native grown-up Italian!
- Shit, I did say that...
- See? You already got it!
- Got what?
- Merda.
- I got merda?
- Not literally. But merda means "shit" or "crap" in Italian. So, you'll likely hear something like, "Questo telefono è un pezzo di merda" (This phone is a piece of crap/shit).
- Holy merda, that's easy!
- Especially because merda is used in the same instances in which you'd use "shit" in English.
- Finally, something simple.
- The most challenging thing about this Italian curse word is the fact that since you can't add a -y at the end to make it an adjective like you do to say "shitty," you have to say something is di merda (of shit) instead. You can look at this video as an example. The speaker says trono di merda to talk about a "shitty" or "crappy" throne.
- He doesn't even sound that angry!
- Curse words are more of a state of mind in Italian. You don't need to be angry to use them!
- Well, that's good to know!
- Now, shall we move on to the next word?
- Fuck yeah, bring it!
- Alright, Riley, have you had enough time to process cazzo, which we covered earlier?
- Given its meaning, I'm not sure you should use the word "processing". But yeah, why?
- Because cazzo is the masculine form of minchia, a curse word from southern Italy that has become popular in the entire country!
- Like how "y'all" was just a southern thing, and now everyone says it?
- Yeah, but minchia is actually used by everyone, not just by cartoon characters.
- ...Oh, sick burn, Maestra!
- You know I can be savage. Minchia refers to female genitalia, but only in a cursing way, much like "pussy" in English. You'll seldom hear anyone refer to actual body parts with that word.
- Okay, so, I shouldn't start that trend, right?
- Please don't.
- Got it.
- So, you would use minchia in almost exactly the same way you'd use cazzo.
You can see in this video the player uses it to mean "fuck".
- What about "hai rotto"? Would you say that?
- I was just getting to that, Riley. You could say, stare sulla minchia or hai rotto la minchia but those are much less common. It's a much less fragile body part, I suppose!
- You don't need to be so graphic in your explanations.
- I apologize. Moving on!
- If you thought the last few words have been easy, then you'll love this one, Riley! In this section, we're covering the word culo, which means "ass" in Italian.
- I imagine it's not going to be as easy as it seems?
- For once, no! This is another easy word, Riley, because you'd use culo the exact same way you'd use ass, most of the time.
For example, if you wanted to say that someone was a kiss ass, you'd say they were a lecca culo, which isn't a literal translation, it actually translates to "ass-licker", but it has the same meaning.
- Okay, that's not too hard to remember, but you said most of the time. You even underlined that word.
- Riley, what did we say about breaking the fourth wall?
- Sorry, Maestra...
- Anyway...there are two exceptions. Don't worry, though. They're easy to remember.
- Okay, so culo can be a bad word and a good word? That's not confusing at all...
- It's always a bad word, but sometimes it means something a little different than in English. You should be used to that by now!
- I guess, but you said this word was easy!
- And it is, don't be dramatic. Just don't overthink it. You'll get the hang of it, I promise! Now, let's move on to everyone's favorite Italian swear word!
- Okay, Riley, we've reached the Italian parolaccia you'll hear when you're in Italy.
- Which hopefully will be an easy one to learn.
- Certo! This word is a classic, but you really only use it one way!
- I like it already. What is it?
- Vaffanculo, which means "fuck off" or "go fuck yourself" in Italian.
- Va...culo, wait, sounds like the actual translation is something else.
- Well done, Sherlock! The literal translation is "Go do it in the ass". What "it" is, is up to your imagination.
- Oh, you really shouldn't leave it to my imagination.
- Have fun with it! Now that we've got the basics covered, do you feel up to learning a few more things?
- Can you speed through them?
- We'll have to see, won't we?
- We won't spend too long on this section, but you should know that a lot of bad words in Italian take a very strong influence from religion.
- Yeah, because there's nothing more sacred than curse words.
- Well, it's a catholic country, and there's a lot of religious history, so it's only natural that it plays a role even in the culture of swearing! I wouldn't recommend using most of these words unless you know you're around people who won't get offended, but you should know some examples anyway.
- Hmm, forbidden fruit. You caught my interest.
- Okay, so, all of these examples would essentially mean "bloody hell," "holy cow," or "oh my God," even if that's not their literal translation.
You'll hear the words porco or porca a lot, which mean pig or pork (but it sort of becomes an adjective in these cases), which makes them obvious choices for bestemmie or religious swear words. Some examples are:
Basically, any word you can think of, you can turn into a kind of swear word/bestemmia combination if you add the word porco/porca before it.
- "Pig cow" might just be the best thing ever.
- Right?! One more section and we're done for the day!
- Makes sense, end it on a high note.
There are plenty of Italian curse words. Too many to list in just one article. However, unlike in some languages, religious types of profanity would also be considered a curse word form in Italian. They tend to be considered more serious than other swear words.
- In this section, we'll just cover a few different insults you can use on someone that won't have any other use.
- So these are only insults?
- Yes, Riley.
- Hmm...
- So, a few insults you might hear around Italy are:
- Those are all the insults that exist in Italian?
- Well, no, Riley, but they're some of the most common ones you'll hear! You're looking a little tired, and I didn't want to overwhelm you!
- Again, we're past that point, Maestra.
Even if you don't remember the essence of what you want to say, you just have to get creative! This is a great way to swear even if you don't feel comfortable using actual curse words just yet!
- Okay, Riley, how do you feel about our lesson today?
- I feel dirty. I think I need a shower.
- Italian curse words are essential in the culture. Just look at this video that shows how weird the world would be if curse words didn't exist.
In fact, every region also has its own swear words, on top of the ones that span the country.
- I refuse to learn more. I'm too innocent.
- Well, you already know the most important ones. Trust me, if you want to learn any others, you can just ask a local and they'll be happy to teach you!
- I'll make sure to ask my Italian friends after I impress them with what I already know!
- Buona fortuna, try to not get punched in the face. And by the way, next lesson we're back to using normal language, like usual!
-Oh, fuck!
Yes. Italians tend to swear a lot. Not typically to insult each other, though! It's usually just a way to express frustration or excitement. You'll also likely notice a difference in how often you hear people swear depending on the type of group you're interacting with. Strangers don't usually swear, for example. If an Italian swears around you a lot, they might consider you part of their "inner circle"!
