操你八辈子祖宗! Cào nǐ bā bèizi zǔzōng! (wuh tsow nee bah bay dz dzoo dzohng)
Fuck eight generations of your ancestors! An extremely strong insult: stronger than cào nǐ mā (above). It’s always specifically eight or eighteen generations that are cursed in this insult. The number eight, 八 bā (bah), is considered lucky in Chinese culture. Thus it is especially significant for misfortune to befall what should be a lucky number of generations.
操你祖宗十八代! Cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài! (tsow nee dzoo dzohng shih bah die)
Fuck eighteen generations of your ancestors! An extremely strong insult. All multiples of nine are significant in Chinese culture because nine, 九 jiǔ (joe), is pronounced the same as the word for “long-lasting,” written 久. Eighteen, 十八 shíbā (shih bah), is itself significant because it sounds like 要发 yào fā (yow fah), which means “one will prosper.”
日 rì (rih)
Southern Chinese slang for “fuck” (and also used a bit in some northern provinces like Shanxi and Shandong.) Its origins most likely come from it sounding like 入 rù (roo), which means “enter” and in ancient China was itself a less dirty way of saying “fuck” (like saying “freaking” instead of “fucking”). Rù is also a component radical for another word for “fuck,” 肏 cào (see page 36). Rì is used the same way as cào-combined with “I” into an exclamation like 我日! Wŏ rì! (wuh rih), meaning “Fuck!” or directed at someone’s mother or relatives or ancestors to mean “Fuck you!” as in 日你妈! Rì nǐ mā! (rih nee ma), literally, “Fuck your mother!”
日你外公 rì nǐ wàigōng (rih nee why gohng)
Fuck you. Literally, “Fuck your grandfather!” Used in southern China.
日你外婆 rì nǐ wàipó (rih nee why pwuh)
Fuck you. Literally, “Fuck your grandmother!” Used in southern China.
干 gān (gahn)
Fuck. In reality, gān is slightly less offensive than cào (see above), partly because it isn’t visually graphic (like 肏). It’s closer in strength to “shit,” but most dictionaries translate it as “fuck.” It can refer to having sex, and the way it’s used grammatically is also closer to “fuck”-it can be yelled alone when you’re pissed off, as in 干! Gān! (gahn) or 干了! Gānle! (gahn luh), or like cào it can followed by a subject (usually someone’s mother). See the next entry for more on this. Also see chapter 5 for how to use gān in the context of describing sex. The character 干 also means “dry,” which has made for more than a few comical mistranslations on Chinese restaurant menus and supermarket signs. Now you’ll know what happened next time you come across “sliced fuck tofu” on a Chinese menu. 干 Gān is also used a lot in fighting contexts because it can also mean “to kill.”
干你娘 gān nĭ niáng (gahn nee nyahng)
Fuck you! Literally, “Fuck your mother!” Used in southern China only (a northerner would always say cào nǐ mā). 娘
Niáng means “mother,” same as 妈 mā (ma), but 干你妈 gān nǐ mā sounds funny in Chinese so niáng is always used instead.
靠 kào (cow)
Damn! A common exclamation to express surprise or anger. 靠 Kào means “to depend upon” in Mandarin, but in the southern Fujianese dialect that the expression originates from (spoken in both Fujian and Taiwan) it’s actually 哭 kū (coo), meaning “to cry.” Kao bei, “cry over your father’s death,” kao bu, “cry over your mother’s death,” and kao yao, “cry from hunger,” are extremely common expressions (implying something like “What’s wrong with you? Did your mother/father just die?” or “Are you dying of starvation?”) and are nasty ways, in this dialect, to tell someone to shut up. However, in its popularization beyond Fujian and Taiwan the meaning has changed to an exclamation equivalent to “Damn!”
我靠 wŏ kào (wuh cow)
Shit! A common exclamation to express surprise or anger. In Mandarin, it literally means “I depend on” but is used as a stronger form of kào, like “Shit!” versus “Damn!”
Cursing mothers (and other relatives)
他妈的 tāmāde (tah mah duh)
Damn! Shit! While not anywhere near as vulgar as the words above, this is without a doubt the most classic of Chinese swears. It means “his mother’s” and implies the larger sentence 操他妈的屄 cào tā mā de bī (tsow tah mah duh bee), “Fuck his mother’s pussy!” but is much less dirty since the key words are left out. The phrase can be exclaimed by itself or used to intensify an adjective. Thus you can say something like “今天他妈的冷” “Jīntiān tāmāde leng” (jean tyinn tah mah duh lung) for “Today is really damn cold,” even though the literal translation, “Today is his mother’s cold,” doesn’t make sense. Another example: 他真他妈的牛屄! Tā zhēn tāmāde niúbī! (tah jen tah ma duh nyoo bee) means “He’s really fucking badass!” even though it translates as “He’s really his mother’s awesome!”
And of course, you can swap in any other relatives-a common version in Beijing is 他大爷 tā dàye (tah dah yeh), literally “his grandfather” (implying “his grandfather’s”). 他奶奶的 Tā nǎinai (tah nigh nigh), “his grandmother” (implying “his grandmother’s”) is common as well.
你老师 nǐ lǎoshī (nee laow shih)
Damn! Literally “your teacher” (implying “his teacher’s”). A Taiwan variation on tāmāde (page 41). Written 你老師 in Taiwan.
妈的 māde (mah duh)
Damn! Literally “mother’s” and a shortened form of tāmāde (page 41). Both an exclamation and an intensifier.
你妈的 nǐmāde (nee mah duh)
Damn you! Literally “your mother’s” instead of “his mother’s” (page 41) and thus a bit stronger since it’s a direct address.
你大爷 nǐ dàye (nee dah yeh)
Damn you! A northern Chinese variation on the above. Literally “your grandfather” (implying “his grandfather’s”).
你奶奶 Nǐ nǎinai (nee nigh nigh), “your grandmother,” is common in northern China as well.
他大爷 tā dàye (tah dah yeh)
Shit, damn. Can be either exclaimed alone or used as an intensifier. Literally “his grandfather.” 他奶奶 Tā nǎinai (tah nigh nigh), “his grandmother,” is common as well. Both are only used in northern China.
去你妈的 qù nǐ mā de (chee nee mah duh)
Fuck off. Literally “go to your mother’s” and stronger than tāmāde (page 41) since it is a direct address.
去你奶奶的 qù nǐ nǎinai de (chee nee nigh nigh duh)
Fuck off. Literally “go to your grandmother’s” and a variation on the above.
去你的 qùnǐde (chee nee duh)
Damn you, get lost. Literally “go to yours” and milder than the above.