Italian · Exclamations
Porca puttana!
POR-kah poot-TAH-nah · /ˈpor.ka putˈta.na/
Holy shit! / Goddammit!
3/5 Watch your audience
genuinely rude; friends only, never at work
Literally
"Pig whore"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
The "porco/porca ___" formula at full non-blasphemous strength: pairing the pig with a whore instead of a saint keeps it a strong secular curse rather than a bestemmia. Often clipped to "porca putt..." or the softer "porca paletta." A big, satisfying yell for real anger — coarse, common, and safely godless.
Heard in the wild
Porca puttana, si è rotto di nuovo!
Goddammit, it broke again!
Where it lands
Universal across Italy
Quick answers
- What does "Porca puttana!" mean?
- In Italian, "Porca puttana!" means "Holy shit! / Goddammit!". Literally it's "Pig whore". The "porco/porca ___" formula at full non-blasphemous strength: pairing the pig with a whore instead of a saint keeps it a strong secular curse rather than a bestemmia. Often clipped to "porca putt..." or the softer "porca paletta." A big, satisfying yell for real anger — coarse, common, and safely godless.
- Is "Porca puttana!" offensive?
- It's genuinely rude — a 3/5 (Watch your audience) on the Punch-o-Meter. Fine among friends, never at work or with people you've just met.
- How do you pronounce "Porca puttana!"?
- Say it "POR-kah poot-TAH-nah" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: ˈpor.ka putˈta.na.
Related in Italian
Cazzo! KAHT-tso Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse. Merda! MEHR-dah Shit! / Damn it! Che palle! kay PAHL-lay What a pain in the ass! / So annoying! Porca miseria! POR-kah mee-ZEH-ryah Dammit! / For heaven's sake! Minchia! MEEN-kyah Holy shit! / Wow! / Damn! Che cazzo?! kay KAHT-tso What the fuck?!
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Damn".
- French Putain ! Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really
- German Scheiße! Shit! / Damn! — the all-purpose German expletive
- Greek γαμώτο Damn it! / Dammit!
- Japanese くそ Damn! / Crap! / Shit!
- Korean 씨발 Fuck / fucking hell — the load-bearing Korean curse.
- Polish kurwa Fuck / damn / shit — the load-bearing word of Polish, and its most common comma.
- Portuguese Porra! Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation
- Russian Блин! Damn! / Darn! / Shoot!
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.