Italian swear words
Every language has its own swear words, and Italian is no exception. Italian swear words, or parolacce, are used in everyday conversations, especially the milder bad words.
Italians are spontaneous and outgoing people, so it won’t come as a surprise that they have a vast repertoire of Italian swear words to choose from.
So, how do you say swear word in Italian?
Italian English Lessons. Insults & Bad Words: Special Price
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How to pronounce Italian swear words
To get you started, here are some of the mildest Italian swear words. Further on in this lesson we will look at the pronunciation of these and more Italian swear words.
Accidenti! – Damn it, holy smoke! (lit. accidents)
Porca vacca! – Holy cow! (lit. pig cow)
Porca miseria! – For God’s sake, for Goodness’ sake (lit. pig misery)
Porco cane! – For God’s sake! (lit. pig dog)
Cavolo! – Holy smoke! (lit. cabbage)
Col cavolo! – No way! (lit. with the cabbage!)
Madonna! – Good God! (lit. Madonna)
Madonna santa! – Good God! (lit. saint Madonna)
Che due palle! – What the heck! (lit. what two balls)
Dio santo! – Oh my God! (lit. saint God)
Italian swear words are so common that people may let something bad slip from their tongue even when they are working behind a desk (but never in public contact positions).
Need to vent out of frustration? Fanculo! Want to tell your friend that he’s a total douchebag? Coglione! You did something very, very wrong? Merda!
There are Italian swear words for all tastes and all emotions. So, what are some of the most colorful of them? Let’s find out.
Culture shock!
A few words of warning. This lesson on Italian curse words may be fun, but it features insults and other nasty swear words that can be quite rude to use in the real world. Don’t go around saying What’s wrong with you, stupido? like Luca and his pal. That’s bad manners.
But if in your language learning journey you ever happen to find yourself subjected to unprovoked Italian verbal abuse, then by all means feel free to retaliate with all you’ve got. This lesson will provide you with quite an arsenal of Italian swear words! 😉
Italian swear words for the self
The Italian swear words you are about to learn are not directed at anyone in particular, but at whatever entity or deity is listening.
They are bad words, but they are pretty much ok to use in private settings such as at home or even at work, such as when your office computer crashes and you suddenly become aware that you lost half a day’s work.
Cazzo
A rather crass translation of dick (neutral translation would be pene, penis, but that’s not a curse word). Depending on intonation, can be used to convey surprise, anger or worry at having done something wrong. It is very, very common.
It can be used as an exclamation or inside a whole sentence to give more emphasis like the English adjective fucking.
Cazzo
Fuck, shit, crap
Fucking
Shitty:
Cazzo!
Shit!
Examples
Note: when used to translate fucking, cazzo is followed by the preposition di. Shitty is usually translated as del cazzo.