Portuguese · Frustration & Despair
Que inferno!
keh een-FEHR-noo · /ke ĩ.ˈfɛʁ.nu/
What a nightmare! / For crying out loud!
1/5 Grandma-safe
mild, playful; fine on daytime TV
Literally
"What hell"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
Mild "hell" for a maddening situation — endless bureaucracy, a screaming car alarm, a day where everything goes wrong. "Um inferno" describes the ordeal ("o trânsito hoje foi um inferno"). Clean enough for most company.
Heard in the wild
Terceira fila do dia, que inferno!
Third line of the day, what a nightmare!
Where it lands
Brazil (universal).
Quick answers
- What does "Que inferno!" mean?
- In Portuguese, "Que inferno!" means "What a nightmare! / For crying out loud!". Literally it's "What hell". Mild "hell" for a maddening situation — endless bureaucracy, a screaming car alarm, a day where everything goes wrong. "Um inferno" describes the ordeal ("o trânsito hoje foi um inferno"). Clean enough for most company.
- Is "Que inferno!" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 1/5 (Grandma-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. mild, playful; fine on daytime TV.
- How do you pronounce "Que inferno!"?
- Say it "keh een-FEHR-noo" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: ke ĩ.ˈfɛʁ.nu.
Related in Portuguese
Porra! POH-hah Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation Caralho! kah-RAH-lyoo Fuck! / Hell! — exclamation and all-purpose intensifier Merda! MEHR-dah Shit! / Crap! Droga! DROH-gah Darn! / Damn it! Cacete! kah-SEH-chee Damn! / Bloody hell! — also 'a ton' as 'pra cacete' Que sacanagem! sah-kah-NAH-zhang That's so unfair! / What a low blow!
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Tough luck".
- French C'est nul ! That sucks / That's lame
- German Mist! Crap! / Rats! — the family-friendly 'damn'
- Greek σιγά Big deal / whatever / calm down / as if — dismissive minimizing.
- Italian Merda! Shit! / Damn it!
- Japanese 勘弁して Give me a break / spare me / oh, come on
- Korean 아이고 Oh dear / oof / good grief — the sound of Korea sitting down after a long day.
- Polish szlag Damn it — 'szlag by to trafił' = may a stroke strike it.
- Russian Капец! That's it, it's over / Damn / Whoa
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.