When you’re learning a new language, one of the most fun parts is learning how to swear. Of course, Italian swear words always sound prettier to my non-Italian ear than their English equivalents, but just because they sound prettier doesn’t mean their meaning is! When I was teaching Italian, one of the most common questions I’d get from students - always after class, in hushed tones - was stuff like, “How do you say ’shit’ in Italian?” With that in mind, here are my 8 favorite Italian swear words.
Update: Now you can hear sample pronunciations for some of these words - wherever you see a blue arrow underneath the word, click on it and you’ll hear exactly how to say it!
And be sure to check out the second installment, Italian swear words part 2 - readers’ choice!
8. Accidenti! (ah-chee-DEN-tee)
Let’s start with something G-rated, shall we? This is the less-questionable version of “merda” (see #6) - when you want to say a euphemism like “crap” instead of swearing and saying “shit,” you’d say “accidenti.” It looks so much more innocent, doesn’t it? Almost like, “Oh, what a horrible accident that I almost said a bad word” or something. Anyway, this is the one to internalize so that you don’t let loose with any of the really bad ones in front of passing nuns.7. Madonna! (mah-DOHN-nah)
While many Italian stereotypes turn out to be less true on the ground in Italy than you might have expected them to be, the one about Italians using “mamma mia!” as an exclamation of surprise or annoyance holds water - they actually do use it. But personally, I prefer the equally common “Madonna!” if for no other reason than it amuses me in this predominantly Catholic country. You can even pair this one with “porca” (see #1) for more emphatic (and less polite) uses.6. Merda! (MEHR-dah)
Now, because I’d often get the “How do you say ’shit’ in Italian?” question from students, I’ve learned this one - but I’ve honestly not heard it as much in Italy as I have some of the other swear words on this page. This is, however, how you say “shit” in Italian, and it’s used in exactly the same way we use it in English. It also is incorporated into other phrases for more colorful meanings as well.
5. Cazzo! (KAHTZ-soh)
This is the other question I’d get from the occasional (bolder) students - “How do you say ‘fuck’ in Italian?” This is the answer - “cazzo” - although it literally is a colorful term for “penis” (see below), and this one you do hear.4. Testa di cazzo! (TES-tah dee KAHTZ-soh)
Sometimes translating things literally is what makes these swear words amusing to me - but sometimes it works out quite well, and that’s the case with this little gem. Instead of calling someone a “dickhead,” in Italian you’d call them a “head of dick,” or a “testa di cazzo.” Which, really, is the same thing, right? This is also a general way of calling someone an “asshole,” but the Italian “testa di cazzo” has a bit more spice and so isn’t language you’ll want to use in polite company. “Cazzo” has lots of uses in Italian, like “culo” (see #3).3. Vaffanculo! (vah-fahn-KOO-loh)
This is a red-hot number, so use it with caution. It’s the Italian equivalent of “fuck off” or “go fuck yourself,” but literally means something vaguely like “go do it in the ass.” “Culo” on its own (meaning “ass,” but in a much more vulgar way than the English can really translate) has many, many uses in Italian, but this is the one non-Italians can latch onto quickly - which is both entertaining and a bit dangerous! The accompanying gesture for “vaffanculo” is the same as it is in English - a middle finger.2. Cavolo! (KAH-voh-loh)
Here’s an example of an exclamation that is really only funny to me because I translate it literally in my head when I hear it. “Cavolo” literally means “cabbage,” but when you say it emphatically it’s kind of like the equivalent of “holy crap!” or a more forceful version of “wow!” Even better, in my humble opinion, is what happens when you put the innocuous-looking “che” in front of it - “che cavolo?” offered as a question is kind of like saying, “what the fuck?” but you’re really saying, “what cabbage?” Ah, I love that.1. Porca vacca! (POR-kah VAH-kah)
This is my favorite one, hands down. In English, I’ve got lots of ways to say, “well, dammit!” in varying degrees of colorful language. In Italian, it’s no different. “Porca vacca” literally means “pig cow,” but it’s used in much the same way we’d say, “crap!” or “damn!” or the like - it’s not the most polite way to say it, but it’s also not the worst. What I particularly love about it is the literal translation (it cracks me up to think people are saying, “pig cow!”), and what’s fun about this is that you can put “porca” in front of just about anything. “Porca vacca” is my favorite for its literal silliness, but “porca miseria” (”miserable pig” or “pig poverty”) is a very close second-favorite for my perceived sense of the melodrama that goes with it. You’ll hear variations on these at Italian sporting events when the home team does something stupid.
So, those are my 8 favorite Italian swear words. I know some of my readers know some colorful Italian phrases, so what are your favorites? Leave a comment below to share it with us!
And for more Italian slang and swear words, you could do much worse than Deirdre’s list on Beginning With I - she explains lots of the slang you might hear while in Italy, both polite and decidedly not so.
Bonus: Fare i gattini (FAH-rey ee gaht-TEE-nee)
Okay, I’ve never heard this one personally, but while researching the colorful world of Italian swear words, I discovered that to say someone is throwing up or (even more colorfully) “barfing one’s guts out,” you’d use this phrase - “fare i gattini.” Which literally would mean that you were “having kittens.” So, I have to wonder - what does one say when one’s cat is actually having kittens?
Subscribe
|
Print
|
Share             
|
Testa di cazzo has got to be my all time favourite. Haha, thanks for posting these ^^
You forgot my all time favorite Porca Miseria. Which can be used in a varying array of situations such as when your team loses a big match, or if some ass hole bumps into you at the pub.
Thanks for the comment, Gianfranco - I stuck “porca miseria” in with “porca vacca” at #1, but it probably should have had its own entry. It is quite a good one. 
Hi there. Jessica you forgot “Minchia” the southern expression for “Cazzo”! That’s slang!!! I’ll check this page later on….i want to be updated!
Thanks for the addition, Stefano - I thought “minchia” meant something else? Or maybe it does but it’s used the same way “cazzo” is?
You stupid idiot,,, “porca vaca”, cannot be translated literally to “pig cow”.
It obviously means “dirty(pig) whore(cow)”…
If you had just one sinapse in your tiny brain you would be able to figure it out.
Ma dai… There’s no reason to be rude, is there?
I know it’s not literally “pig cow,” but just as you pointed out in your translation the words on their own can be taken as “pig” and “cow.” That’s where I find the humor. And humor is, of course, a personal thing. Ain’t that the beauty of it?
Ok. That’s right. Just one thing. If “madonna” is quite accepted even in catholic places,(and it’s said also by polite old ladies) if you say “porca madonna” is considerd blasphemy (and actually, it is) so, i recommend not to use it too often. I may not be offended by it, but not everybody will be as open minded in my country.
That’s a good point, Costanza. Putting “porca” in front of a word - any word, even a completely polite one - totally negates its politeness!
Hi jessica! i loved this article, i still can’t stop laughing.
i think foreign people’s interest in italian swearing is.. uhm.. curious 
btw, “fare i gattini” is meant like “behaving like kittens” so, as you said, throw up. but it’s not really common!
Hello Jessica, this is quite funny! But I have question: I met this fellow from Ancona who used a term that sounded like, and I’ll just try to spell it phonetically, sapristi, maybe sopristi … does this ring any bells? He used it when something he was cooking came apart and landed on the floor.
You should add in “Che cazzo…” meaning roughly, “what the fuck…” I’ve heard it quite a lot in Italy.
Perhaps ergo should learn to spell synapse. Apparently rudeness and stupidity go together.
JT, that’s a good question - I don’t know that one, but I’ll see what I can find out. I’m always in the market for a good new swear word. (A quick search online tells me that “sapristi” is a French exclamation, albeit a bit old-fashioned, and means something like “good heavens.”)
Gio, yes, “che cazzo” is a good one. Thanks for the addition!
The best Italian swear word I ever learned was “leccaculo.” Literally, it means to lick some one’s asshole/penis. But, it’s used like kiss-ass is in the US. It’s certainly not for polite conversation, or for the person you’re describing.
Hi Jessica, “Vaffanculo” and condensed “Fanculo”, is the swear word most used in italy.
It is so popular that Beppe Grillo, a comic man involved in politics, has used it for a protestation days. The “VaffanculoDay” and the “Vaffanculo2Day”.
For more information about this initiative, this is the link: http://www.beppegrillo.it/eng/
Bye bye
hi jessica,
i’m italian but i never hear “fare gattini” anyway your list it’s very funny!
My favorite one is “sticazzi” (STEE KAHTZ EE) translated -> “this penis” it’s most used in Rome and is a corrispettive for “who care” but more ironical.
Bella!
My grandmother’s favorite expression was “Porca putana” roughly translated to ‘dirty prostitute.
I know that when a student comes to America the first thing they learn are dirty words. I think that’s because it’s said the most.
Thanks for the heads up for understanding what they are saying in Italian!
Elementary teacher in USA
FILIO DI PUTANA (SOB) really more like son of a whore.
My all time favourite is “stronzo!” As in “ma che stronzo!” What a bastard!
Puttana is one everyone should know, whore.
As well as Stronzo, which can mean a lot of things…Asshole, jerkoff, cunt, fucker, etc etc.
I often like to combine vaffunculo with another insult, such as cazzo or stronzo.
(vaffunculo cazzo would be like ‘fuck you, dick[or asshole]” not ‘fuck you fuck’)
And there are a MYRIAD of vulgar terms in italian, most of them interchangable.
I’m glad someone mentioned the common “stronzo” - that literally means turd but is used in the sense of arsehole. It can also be affectionate.
A really big or bad arsehole, such as Berlusconi, is a Stronzone.
“porca…” + X,Y or Z is everywhere - it’s their swear utility word (ranging in intensity). “Porco-vacca” is my favorite for the same reason as Jessica. This country eats a lot of pork, so considering them to be so filthy (”sporca” = dirty) is in itself sort of funny. The pan-ultimate swear is to say “porco-d*o” where “d*o” = “God” in Italian. It’s apparently too horrid for me to write here - my Italian wife flinched when I asked her about this one. In southern Italy, there’s a rather diffused expression, “mizzica” that means penis in Sicilian dialect. “Minchia” is, however, a rather tame expression meaning, “whaaa..?!” Bad to confuse these… Also, bad to confuse fico (”cool”) with fica (”pussy”) or figa (”fig”). I went to a bakery and asked a very surprised attendant for “one chocolate fig, with an almond inside…no, three please.” I messed up the pronunciation and ended up sounding quite vulgar.
Great additions, everyone. Looks like I’ll have to do a follow-up post.
And porca figa, that’s too funny about messing up the pronunciation when asking for the ‘chocolate fig with an almond inside’ at the pastry shop… I can only imagine the stunned look on the shopkeeper’s face…
interesting!!!
Nice post.
I agree with Gio that ‘Che cazzo. . .’ is worth special mention.
How about ‘fessa’ (cunt), found in a phrase often used by an Apulian pal of mine, ‘Fessa di mammete!’ or ‘La fessa di mammete!’ meaning something like ‘Your mamma’s cunt!’ To which he taught me to reply, ‘Che cazzo dice?’ meaning ‘What the fuck you talkin’ about?’
Such a musical language, Italian. 8>))
My friends and like to exclaim some of the in english.. for instance when something is really messed up we shout “How Balls!”
I have yet to discover why “porco dio” and “dio cane” really tick some folks off
I mean they tell me why, but I still don’t *understand*
I don’t know the spelling but ‘fesse di mama’
Its very true. While learning a new language anyone will tend to learn the cuss words and the swear words in the beginning. Its real fun to start with. To abuse someone/something is the easiest of the expressions.
What I want to know is - are there any good Italian words that sound like strong swear words to foreign ears while actually meaning totally benign things like “lamp” or “butterfly” or whatever? Would be fun to create a post for the top 10 Italian words that sound like fantastic swear words but actually aren’t (and the worst sounding while the more pleasant the meaning the better).
Eric, that’s a great idea - I’ll have to see if I can come up with just such a list. And perhaps one of innocuous-sounding words that will curl your Italian grandmother’s hair, too!
I just learned the word for “darn it!” It sounds really angry, but it’s harmless…Managgia!
how do you say basterd and bitch?
Hi, Emily:
The literal translation for bastard is simply “bastardo” (bah-STAR-doh), which has both a technical meaning (child of unmarried parents) and an insulting one.
The Italian word for bitch is “cagna” (KAHN-yah).
Use them wisely.
Ciao,
Jessica
Actually, “accidenti” isn’t a real swear word… is just an esclamation like your “damn!”.
Anyway, the swear word I prevalently say is “porca puttana!!!” (POR-kah put-tah-nah), or “ma porca puttana!”, the “ma” (mah) gives more emphasis 
or… “porca troia!”… troia is like the city troy, but in italian “troia” (and “puttana” too) means also “whore”.
Another swear word I like is “minchia” (the pronunciation is something like mean-key-ah)/”testa di minchia”, which are variation of “cazzo”/”testa di cazzo!”… as a matter of fact, “minchia” is a vulgar way to say penis/cock/shaft etc xD
Sorry for my bad english Send me and e-mail if you wanna know more xDDD
Ma va a cager sei dice Parma. Not certain on the spelling, but this I hear very regularly from natives of Emilia Romagna. Literally meaning “go take a shit”. this would definitely be on my list of favorites along with culo alle balena (whale’s ass), che cazzo voi? (what the fuck do you want?), pezzo di merda (piece of shit) and schiffo al cazzo (i commonly hear this used as “tastes like shit/dick”)
a few others ive heard from various Italians: Sporca figa troia (dirty slut/pussy), scopa mi(fuck me, used when upset), scopare ( to fuck, in Parmesan dialect), orrechione (fag/queer), fate sega (masturbate/ jerk off), testa di merda (shithead), and this one i read, and enjoyed it very much, Ciao, cara, fammi un bel pompino!
i’m in italy this year for an exchange and i’ve got all of my friends here teaching me swears, mostly sicilian ones (i’m in catania, sicily). i know this is an old post, but i just wanted to add a couple of things.
minchia and cazzo are also used as another form of ‘fuck!.’ also, facci’ minchia is another form of teste di cazzo, and it means fuck face!
ciao
oh! another thing. i just read tyler’s post above mine and he wrote ‘che cazzo voi?’ in sicilian, che cazzo voi is ‘chi spakkiu voi?’
my momma had a good one actually she had lots of good ones bless her heart.Vacca Putana….cow whore i luv that one
just in response to previous posts,
“fessa di mamma” means, essentially, “your mother’s cunt” and, in conjunction with certain verbs, is probably the most offensive phrase you could tell any Italian man.
“Che cavolo” is a more restrained version of “Che cazzo.” It’s the equivalent of our “what the frick” or “what the F” People will use “Che Cavolo” when they’re joking around but “che cazzo” when they’re truly agitated.
Prco Dio is also very useful by us in ROME!
Ciao, รจ bello vedere che l’italiano interessa a qualcuno… almeno per le parolacce.
(Bye, it’s nice to see italian is intresting for someone, even though it’s only for swearing!)
Does anyone know the meaning of this phrase? Not sure of the spelling– but it sounds like “a fonda mahtz.” My parents used to say it a lot.
Hmm… It doesn’t sound familiar to me, Benny, but there’s a verb “affondare” (the 3rd person singular would be “affonda”) which means “to sink” or “to drop.” It could also be a dialect, in which case I’m going to be no help whatsoever. What part of Italy are your parents from?
Dad was from Calabria, mom from Sicily…evrybody in my family was either a cop or a mobster
Then I’d say it’s highly likely that’s a saying in dialect.
italian teacher here i come
Benny….pretty sure that it has something to do with the very “Ammazare” which means to kill, obviously appropriate But the first part I dont know…
I have a question… i have read many books by Italian authors and some of them use Madonn… is that a short version of Madonna or does it mean something else?
There are lots of Italian dialects that have a tendency to shorten words, so I’d be really surprised if “Madonn…” was anything but “Madonna.”
what about porco dio, porca madonna troia e dio canne… are these also bad?
ti ringrazio anticipamente
x
Brett…
Well quite vulgar indeed, also for a italian seaman…
Jessica.. looking at the other side of the mirror… what is the reaction of non english speaking 3 bilions people when they read/hear english words..
good web site.. I suggested (it) to my british friends already…
good days and good life you all
sorry for my poor english.. (american or british?)
Dear Jessica,
Without your “colorful” Italian phrases, I might have gone through life without being able to say in Italian “shit, mother’s cunt, fuck up the arse”, etc. What an intellectual enrichment!
I have to say this site is awesome. I went to a dig in sicily in 04 and thought everyone i met was lying tome when they said “minchia”. I used to walk around, and say it out loud while walking the streets proud that i knew just one word of swear words in italian.. I would promptly get yelled at by one of my friends that taught me the word saying… ” nonononononononononono shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Now i know why.. great website!!! i am very excited to learn of the swear words slang of italy…. my fav so far—— “Testa di cazzo”
to VA A FARE I GATTINI sounds like a restricted version of the very common and yet very rude VA A FARE I BOCCHINI i`ve never heard anyone using it and the only connection to swearing i can think of
MADONNA means MARY the mother of jesus holy mother of god and is the result of 2 latin words merged together into one:MATER DONNA = MA + DONNA= Madonna
As a child, I heard my grandmother use a phrase when she was angry that sounded something like “corpa ta lenya.” My father said he didn’t know what it meant, but I’m sure he did, it was bad, and he didn’t want to explain it to his innocent daughter.
Hi, Margaret:
Well, “legna” would be pronounced like “lenya,” but the only phrase I can find after a quick search that might come close is “cotta a legna,” which basically means “cooked in a wood oven.” Not sure that’s harsh enough for something to say when you’re angry!
Ciao,
Jessica
Madonne….pronounced mahrone!! (with a curl of
the tongue) means Mother of God (an Italian exclamation)
From a childhood friend of Italian roots….these
are spelled phonetically
Vah cagah…meant “go take a shit”
Foogee gah pesta…….meant “what a stink!”
Spootsa……….meant smell this (when you
hold something under someone’s nose)
These were relatively harmless expressions. We didn’t get our mouths washed with soap for saying them!
Don’t laugh! Oh, go ahead! When my cat is really having kittens, I’d say il mio gatto sta avendo kittens. No one would probably understand me. Then again, maybe they would, but they’d laugh!