AdultLingoSpanish course › Section 4 › Unit 19
🤬 Everyday Profanity & Swear Words in Spanish
Understand everyday curses and how strong each one is. High-frequency swear words as fillers and for emphasis, with their exact weight.
“Joe here. Friday night in Madrid, and nobody here says "darn". I'll show you which swear words are just fillers, which ones hit hard, and when to keep them in your pocket.” — Joe, your host for this unit
Practise this unit free ➔Key Spanish words and phrases
| Spanish | Meaning |
|---|---|
| joder | fuck; damn! (vulgar, Spain) |
| perder | to lose; to miss (a train, bus) |
| ¡jolín! | gosh!, darn! (clean) |
| ¡jo! | aw, darn! (soft) |
| ¡ostras! | wow!, blimey! (clean, Spain) |
| el taco | a swear word (Spain) |
| cansado | tired |
| decir tacos | to swear (Spain) |
| la mierda | shit (vulgar) |
| de mierda | crappy, shitty (vulgar; after a noun) |
| la cagada | a screw-up (vulgar) |
| cagarse | to shit (oneself); me cago en… = curse (vulgar) |
| la leche | milk (in curses and idioms) |
| me cago en la leche | damn it (crude but mild, Spain) |
| manchar | to stain, get dirty |
| la camisa | shirt |
| ¡a la mierda! | screw it!, forget it! (vulgar) |
| ¡hostia! | holy crap! (vulgar, Spain; lit. communion wafer) |
| la vista | view |
| de la hostia | insanely good (or bad) (vulgar, Spain) |
| a toda hostia | flat out, at full speed (vulgar, Spain) |
| ¿qué coño…? | what the hell…? (vulgar, Spain) |
| carajo | damn, hell (vulgar, Latin America) |
| pinche | damn, fucking (adjective) (vulgar, Mexico) |
| ¡no mames! | no way! (vulgar, Mexico) |
| la putada | a bummer, dirty trick (vulgar, Spain) |
| la puta | whore (vulgar); in many curses |
| la madre | mother |
| de puta madre | fucking awesome (vulgar but positive, Spain) |
| me importa un carajo | I don't give a damn (vulgar) |
| el búho | night bus (Madrid; lit. owl) |
| perdonar | to forgive; perdona = sorry |
Example sentences
Damn, what a night!
Does it bother you if I swear?
What a crappy day!
Damn it
What the hell are you doing here?
This place is fucking great.
I don't give a damn.
It was a fucking awesome night.
A conversation from this unit
Another Friday on the rooftop bar off Gran Vía. Joe and Catherine have been up there for an hour, and the wind has picked up.
Catherine: Joe, ¿qué tal el vermut de aquí?Joe, how's the vermouth here?
Joe: De la hostia. Pero aquí arriba hace un frío de la hostia.Amazing. But up here it's freezing as hell.
Catherine: Jaja. ¿Pedimos otro vermut, o bajamos a un bar?Haha. Shall we order another vermouth, or go down to a bar?
Catherine: Vale. Pero el vermut lo pago yo.OK. But I'm paying for the vermouth.
Joe: No, no. Tú pagaste las cañas. Ahora invito yo.No, no. You paid for the beers. Now it's on me.
Catherine: Bueno… pero la siguiente, yo.Fine… but the next one's on me.
Culture notes
Anya meets a group of Joe's Madrid friends at a bar in Lavapiés. Within five minutes everyone has said joder at least twice. How should Anya read that?
As normal: in Spain, casual swearing among friends is everyday and doesn't mean anyone's angry.
Spain swears a lot, and casually. Joder, hostia or me cago en… pepper ordinary chats between friends, often between colleagues too, and you'll hear them on TV. Among friends it's punctuation, not aggression. It still drops off sharply with strangers, older people and formal settings, and an insult aimed at a person is a different thing entirely.
Say it like a local: ¡Joder, qué bien que has venido! — Damn, it's great that you came!
Sunday lunch at a friend's family home in Madrid. Grandma is at the table, and Joe knocks over a glass of water. What does Joe most likely say?
A clean stand-in like ¡ostras! or ¡jolín!
Spanish has a full set of polite stand-ins, like English "shoot" or "darn": ostras (oysters) for hostia, jolín, jo or jope for joder, mecachis for me cago en… They keep the reaction and drop the crudeness, so they're what people say around kids, grandparents and anyone they want to impress.
Say it like a local: ¡Ostras, perdón! — Oops, sorry!
After a night of practising, Anya swears like a local. Joe's friend Lucas grins at her: "Dices más tacos que un carretero." How should Anya take it?
As a fond tease: it's the Spanish version of "you swear like a sailor".
In Spanish you swear like a carretero, a cart driver, not a sailor: hablar como un carretero, or decir más tacos que un carretero. Among friends it's a teasing compliment on a newly loosened tongue. From an older relative it's a gentle telling-off.
Say it like a local: Dices más tacos que un carretero. — You swear more than a cart driver (like a sailor).
It's 1:45 a.m. on a Friday at Sol, and the metro gates are already shut. What are the options in Madrid?
The metro is closed until 6 a.m., but night buses (búhos) run, many of them from Plaza de Cibeles.
Madrid's metro stops around 1:30 a.m. and reopens at 6, every night, weekends included. After that the night buses take over: madrileños call them búhos (owls), and many lines leave from Plaza de Cibeles. Or you can try for a taxi, if you can find a free one on a Friday.
Say it like a local: He perdido el metro. Cojo el búho. — I've missed the metro. I'll get the night bus.
Sunday night, a packed bar in Madrid: Real Madrid against Atlético on the TV. The referee gives a penalty, and the whole bar erupts in swearing. What's going on?
The usual: the Madrid derby is the city's biggest rivalry, and yelling at the referee is part of watching it.
Madrid has two big clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid, and their derby (el derbi madrileño) fills bars all over the city. Cursing at the referee is part of the ritual, and mostly theatre. The line people respect: curse the game, not a person. Insults about someone's mother, origin or skin are another matter, and Spanish football has been cracking down on abusive chants in stadiums.
Say it like a local: ¡Me cago en la leche, árbitro! — Damn it, ref!
Learn it properly
In the app, Joe takes you through this unit in short lessons: multiple choice, matching and building sentences from tiles, with audio, plus listening scenes, chats that react to your replies, read-the-room choices, culture cards and a drama episode. Words you learn come back in review right before you'd forget them. It's free and there's no account: progress stays in your browser.
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