French · 17 phrases
Exclamations
For the stubbed toe, the dropped phone, the jaw-dropping price. This is where French keeps its clean swerves — "purée," "mince," "oh la vache" — right next to the full-fat "putain de bordel de merde." Pick your intensity to match your company.
C'est ouf ! say OOF That's insane! / Crazy! (good or bad) Crotte ! KROT Poop! / Darn! — the polite-company dodge for 'merde' Mince ! MANSS Shoot! / Darn! Oh la vache ! oh la VASH Holy cow! / Wow! / Whoa! Purée ! poo-RAY Sheesh! / Dang! — the clean stand-in for 'putain' Zut ! ZOOT Darn! / Shoot! Bordel ! bor-DEL What a mess! / Chaos! — also 'what the hell' as an intensifier Ça craint ! sa KRAN That's sketchy / That sucks / This is bad news Merde ! MEHRD Shit! / Damn! — and, bizarrely, 'good luck' Nom de Dieu ! nohn duh DYUH Goddammit! / For God's sake! Câlisse ! kah-LISS F***! / Christ! (Québécois sacre) Crisse ! KRISS Christ! / F***! (Québécois sacre) Ostie ! os-TEE Damn! / F***! — and an all-purpose intensifier Putain ! poo-TAN Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really Putain, c'est trop bien ! poo-TAN say troh BYAN F***, this is so good! Putain de bordel de merde ! poo-TAN duh bor-DEL duh MEHRD For f***'s holy sake! — the full three-word combo Tabarnak ! ta-bar-NAK F***! / Goddammit! — the king of Québécois sacres