One more exclamation today🗣
This one is quite bad, but not too bad.
Just like “minced oaths” in English change “damn” to “darn” to make it sound less vulgar, this phrase plays with sounds (kao instead of cao), and uses a different character to become:
我靠 wǒ kào!
❗️ I don’t encourage you to use it – there is NOTHING good about a foreigner swearing in Chinese!
If you feel like swearing, better do that in your native language. And just recognize this one when you hear it around. Once you’re aware of it… you’ll hear it a lot😉
P.S. Credits for the background image to olechkadesign.com👍🏻
@bamboochee yeah, technically? But for example when you hear 我靠, does it sound offensive?
No I won’t think it offensive, just rude. But technically it’s the short for “I f*** your mother”. It can also be shortened into 你妈 (your mother) or, not to be so direct, 尼玛. It’s a twin phrase to 我
Maybe I didn’t explain clearly. For example, when you say 我靠, you may be referring to the thing you’re mad at, so it won’t sound offensive to me unless you’re mad at me
@lynnesankiewicz sorry if that hurt your feelings in any way, Lynne.🙁 If you read the caption, I’m not encouraging anyone to use this phrase – just acknowledging its existence. You do hear it around a lot. Sorry to lose you!
@bamboochee oh I see! Hmmmm… then it’s like “Damn it” when you’re mad at something? 尼玛 sounds more rude to me just because it points specifically at a person, but only a native speaker would sense the actual difference, so 听你的🤐
🙌🏼
@bamboochee in English it’s getting less and less rude though! Btw, what do you think about the example with my friend and her university students? Did they perhaps think that she didn’t understand, or is it also getting okay to use it among adults (like “damn”)?
It’s def okay to use it. We need some words to swear when we’re mad anyway. I’m sure your friends understand, but people usually won’t take it seriously or literally
@bamboochee got it! Yeah she eventually understood and began to smile at it, which only encouraged them to continue.. “We need words to swear when we’re mad” – haha that’s true. 谢谢老师!😊
bamboochee
FYI, all the variants of “f***” in Chinese point to the listener’s mother or other families. Usually we just don’t speak it out 😉