A brief guide how to swear in Ukrainian popped up online recently. Check out this unusual dictionary to learn the phrases you will not be taught in a language course.
Ukrainian swear words
As we reported before, Ukraine’s government plans to adopt a new law to make everyone in the country to speak Ukrainian. However, the local dialect doesn’t have actual “swear words”, or profanities: Such words are considered Russian.
Russian swear words are casually used in Ukrainian but with the rise of “clean Ukrainian language” movement an apparent need for local replacements popped up.
Thus, some activists made a list of correct ways to swear in Ukrainian.
Kp.ua provided a fragment from the guide.
27 ways to swear in Ukrainian
- А щоб в тебе пір’я в роті поросло (A shchob v tebe pir’ya v roti poroslo)—May you have feathers grown in your mouth.
- А щоб твоєю мордою просо молотили (A shchob tvoyeyu mordoyu proso molotyly)—May they take your head and thresh millet with it.
- А добра б тобі не було (A dobra b tobi ne bulo)—With you had no good things happen to you.
- А щоб твоя дружинонька з кумом повелася (A shchob tvoya druzhynonʹka z kumom povelasya)—Wish your wife had an affair with your kids’ God father.
- А щоб ти щастя не знав (A shchob ty shchastya ne znav)—May you not known what happiness is.
- Ти нечиста сило (Ty nechysta sylo)—You are an evil spirit!
- А щоб тобі заціпило (A shchob tobi zatsipylo)—May you become numb.
- А бодай тебе чорти вхопили (A boday tebe chorty vkhopili)—May devils grab you.
- А щоб тобі добра не було (A shchob tobi dobra ne bulo)—Wish you had no good!
- А щоб ти падло дристало та й дристало (A shchob ty padlo drystalo ta y drystalo)—Wish you, creep, had a diarrhoea!
- Бодай тобі лиха година (Boday tobi lykha hodyna)—Evil upon you! (Bad hour upon you.)
- А шоб тебе колька сколола (A shob tebe kolʹka skolola)—Have a colic!
- А щоб тобі заклало (A shchob tobi zaklalo) – Drop dead!
- Бодай ти скис (Boday ty skys)—Get the hump.
- А щоб вам пусто було (A shchob vam pusto bulo)—Bad cess to you!
- А щоб тебе підняло і гепнуло (A shchob tebe pidnyalo i hepnulo)—May you get raised and dropped!
- Шляк би тебе трафив (Shlyak bi tebe trafyv)—Wish you were taken by the evil!
- А щоб тебе грім побив (A shchob tebe hrim pobyv)—Wish thunder killed you.
- Трясця твоїй матері (Tryastsya tvoyiy materi)—Damn your mother!
- Щоб тебе в прецель скрутило (Shchob tebe v pretselʹ skrutylo)—Wish you get twisted into a pretzel!
- Щоб ти з глузду зсунувся (Shchob ty z hluzdu zsunuvsya)—Wish you went mad.
- Сто чортів тобі в печінку (Sto chortiv tobi v pechinku) —Have a hundred of devils in your liver!
- Щоб тебе качка копнула (Shchob tebe kachka kopnula)—Get kicked by a duck!
- Щоб тобі булька з носа вискочила (Shchob tobi bulʹka z nosa vyskochyla)—Wish a bubble jumped out of your nose.
- Колька тобі в печінку (Kolʹka tobi v pechinku)—Have a colic in your liver.
- Щоб тебе муха вбрикнула (Shchob tebe mukha vbryknula)—Get kicked by a fly.
- Щоб тобі рачки лазити (Shchob tobi rachky lazyty)—May you crawl like crayfish [backwards].
Read also:
- 58 Russian superstitions about love and life
- 88 famous Russian proverbs and sayings, and their meanings
- What Love Means to Russian and Ukrainian Women?
- Free Courses of Ukrainian Language for Foreigners
Learning profanity isn’t a good idea at first because you want to present yourself as a good, decent person when you are visiting/traveling/residing in a foreign country. In the beginning, you may get a kick out of it, but using profanity usually makes you look like a less-civilized person. Sure, it may give some some insight into the culture and when you need to express discomfort/anger when it’s obvious that the other person is being extremely rude to you(usually by unwanted/unwarranted physical contact). Usually when people are upset with you, you can usually tell from their gesture, facial expressions, tone… Read more »
I live in Ukraine but I didn’t hear about such a new law. But I agree that Ukrainian doesn’t have its own swear words. All such words are derived from the Russian vocabulary. Also I must admit that people can hear Ukrainian swear words that are mentioned here if they live in Ukrainian-speaking cities or towns in the western part of the country.
Curses *vocabular* sometimes helps in different situations, of course. However, I don’t think that it’ll be simple for a foreigner to remember a phrase like “shchobtyzhluzduzsunuvsya”(It’s not easier than to study a name of the subway station “Polytechnichny Institute” for example). On the other hand, I’ve knew an expat, who studied Ukrainian diligently and used an emotional, but funny and not very rude expression “suky nepryjemni” as a negative impression )).