# Do people in other countries know swear words?



## prost

I'm talking about English ones. I'm writing an article which needs to be translated into other languages. It does contain swear words. f*ck. p*ss Would the translator understand these? For example what happens in Russian?


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## rusita preciosa

By "translator" you mean a professional who makes a living translating from one language to another? What makes you think they would not understand swear words??


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## prost

Some people are afraid of swear words, unlike me. The same is true for some translators. Those people would not want to translate texts with swear words.

rusita preciosa, do you understand those two swear words? If you do then any good translator would.

When you learn a new language they do not teach you any swear words of course.
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## Rallino

At schools they do not teach swear words, but students can learn them with little effort. I for example had insisted my italian teacher to teach the swear words used on a daily basis, and she eventually did. I think language teachers should also teach that part of the language.

But anyway...

I haven't met any translator who avoids translating swear words. Why would they do that? If anyone is to blame, it's the author anyway, so I think it would be bizarre if a translator refused to learn swear words or any other slang for that matter.


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## rusita preciosa

Any translator would understand these words. I would be surprised if a translator declines to translate them.

As for general public, everyone understands fuck  from watching Amerivcan movies (I knew this word way before I started to learn English ).
Russians would understand piss  because the word is almost identical to its Russian equivalent, although they may not understand "piss off", "get pissed" etc..

Actually, out of curiosity, I entered these in Babelfish and it did not translate them into Russian, so online translators seem more prudish than humans.

BTW, my undergrad degree is in linguistics and we actually had a class on slang and swear words in the language that was my major. I agree with Rallino though, regular language schools do not have slang classes.


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## sergio11

It depends on the context. An experienced and knowledgeable translator would know those words, but sometimes it is a problem to translate them, because the same words don't always have the same connotations in the other language and there aren't always ways to translate those concepts accurately. If they are very literal with the translation, it may become meaningless in the new language.  On the other hand, if they are faithful to the meaning but with a different wording, they will be accused of prudishness, censorship, corruption of the text, etc.  It is especially difficult when those words are used as interjections or in idiomatic expressions.


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## prost

That's amazing! I had no idea that translators or teachers would all do that!

I thought that some translators could still be a professional translator if they were not prepared to translate swear words!


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## sergio11

prost said:


> That's amazing! I had no idea that translators or teachers would all do that!
> 
> I thought that some translators could still be a professional translator if they were not prepared to translate swear words!


Of course there can be professional translators that don't know swear words! Remember that most of the translators' work is translating official documents, which don't have swear words.


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## Frank06

prost said:


> I'm talking about English ones. I'm writing an article which needs to be translated into other languages. It does contain swear words. f*ck. p*ss Would the translator understand these? For example what happens in Russian?


Earlier today  I found an article on Dutch swear words. You might be interested in the top 10 of most used swear words in Dutch, or rather by Dutch speaking people. We're not even talking about translators here  .

1. shit 78%
3. fuck 48%
9. bullshit25%
10. damn 23%

Number 7 is Jezus (36%) and though it is used as a swear word (or part of it) for a long time, I do suspect that English 'Jesus' influences the ongoing popularity of that curse word.

'Piss' is not in the list, but given the fact that the Dutch word for 'piss' is 'pis', I don't think it a lot of people would misunderstand it.

Apart from all that, I have the same feeling as Rusita: 


> By "translator" you mean a professional who makes a living translating from one language to another? What makes you think they would not understand swear words??


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## prost

Frank06, do Dutch people learn English swear words from movies?

Anyway, I want to use an example now to show you what I most want to know. If someone very frightening came to me and tried to harm me, I would say 'piss off' to them because I'm trying to be as rude as possible to them so that I can get rid of them as quickly as possible. That would be a reasonable use for swearing at someone. I'm not trying to be nice to them.

Does 'piss off' translate into anything in your own language? In other words, if you wanted to get rid of someone who was very nasty, would you have an equivalent phrase in your language? Or does 'piss off' only exist in English?


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## rusita preciosa

prost said:


> Or does 'piss off' only exist in English?


I'm not sure what you are asking prost... 
*Of course* there is a way in other languages to send someone to hell in a rude way... Will it literally be "piss off" as in "urinate away"? - I don't think so.
In Russian you would literally say "go into asshole" or "go to cock". Same meaning, different words. That's why slang/swear words don’t translate well.


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## prost

You understood me perfectly!

Saying "go to hell" is not powerful enough. Unless you swear, then the other person may not realize that you want to get rid of them.


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## Walshie79

Frank06 said:


> Earlier today I found an article on Dutch swear words. You might be interested in the top 10 of most used swear words in Dutch, or rather by Dutch speaking people. We're not even talking about translators here .
> 
> 1. shit 78%
> 3. fuck 48%
> 9. bullshit25%
> 10. damn 23%
> 
> Number 7 is Jezus (36%) and though it is used as a swear word (or part of it) for a long time, I do suspect that English 'Jesus' influences the ongoing popularity of that curse word.
> 
> 'Piss' is not in the list, but given the fact that the Dutch word for 'piss' is 'pis', I don't think it a lot of people would misunderstand it.
> 
> Apart from all that, I have the same feeling as Rusita:


 
I must admit, the first time I saw the Spanish sign "Prohibido pisar", I thought it meant "Urinating forbidden"! 

Some English swear words are IIRC thought to be of Dutch or Low German origin, including "fuck"- and cognates of "shit(e)" are in all the West Germanic languages in some form I think.


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