Russian · Exclamations
Твою мать!
tvoyu mat'
tvah-YOO MAHT · /tvɐˈju matʲ/
Damn it! / Son of a bitch! / For crying out loud!
3/5 Watch your audience
genuinely rude; friends only, never at work
Literally
"Your mother"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
A truncated gesture toward the full mat curse "yob tvoyu mat'" — you stop just short, and everyone hears the rest. Coarse but extremely common as a standalone "dammit," muttered when things go wrong. The clean fake-out is "tvoyu diviziyu" (your division). The full version belongs in never-say.
Heard in the wild
Твою мать, опять пробки!
Son of a bitch, traffic again!
Where it lands
Russia (universal)
Quick answers
- What does "Твою мать!" mean?
- In Russian, "Твою мать!" means "Damn it! / Son of a bitch! / For crying out loud!". Literally it's "Your mother". A truncated gesture toward the full mat curse "yob tvoyu mat'" — you stop just short, and everyone hears the rest. Coarse but extremely common as a standalone "dammit," muttered when things go wrong. The clean fake-out is "tvoyu diviziyu" (your division). The full version belongs in never-say.
- Is "Твою мать!" 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 "Твою мать!"?
- Say it "tvah-YOO MAHT" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: tvɐˈju matʲ.
Related in Russian
Блин! blin BLEEN Damn! / Darn! / Shoot! Чёрт! chyort CHORT Damn! / Hell! Чёрт возьми! chyort voz'mi CHORT vahz-MEE Damn it! / For God's sake! Ё-моё! yo-moyo YO mah-YO Oh boy! / Geez! / Good grief! Ёлки-палки! yolki-palki YOL-kee PAHL-kee Good grief! / For heaven's sake! Облом! oblom ah-BLOM Bummer / What a letdown / No dice
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!
- Italian Cazzo! Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse.
- 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
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.