Foul language (Advanced): Common swear words and phrases

💬 With commands to one person you often use the plain verb form: halt, komm, geh. Compare Halt die Klappe! with Komm her!

🇩🇪 Halt die Klappe! is very blunt and aggressive. It's much harsher than simply asking someone to be quiet.

💬 Maul is an animal's mouth, not the normal Mund. Halt's is short for Halte das.

🇩🇪 This is genuinely rude and aggressive. The softer version for telling a friend to stop talking is Halt den Mund!.

💬 The stress falls on the end: (ee-dee-OHT), not like English "IDiot".

🇩🇪 Using du here is not about friendly informal speech; it's just the normal way insults are usually thrown at one person. If you insulted someone with Sie, it would sound unusually cold or pointed.

🇩🇪 Insulting someone to their face can count as a criminal offence in Germany. Calling a police officer this can end in a hefty fine.

🇩🇪 This is a strong personal insult and can easily start a fight. Even if you hear it casually in films, saying it in real life is a big escalation.

💬 This is Mist plus Kerl "guy", so literally a "crap guy". German builds plenty of insults by gluing words together like this.

🇩🇪 It's typical of Bavaria and Austria, and fairly mild. It can even sound half-affectionate between friends.

🇩🇪 It's closer to "slut" and is a harsh, sexist insult. Using it at someone can escalate a situation fast.

💬 The dich "yourself" is required. To a group it becomes Verpisst euch!.

🇩🇪 This is very aggressive. Only expect it in a real confrontation.

💬 The verb is abhauen, and the ab jumps to the end: Er haut ab "He's taking off".

💬 Commands to one person often use the bare verb at the start: fahr, geh, komm. Here zur is just zu der shortened, as in zur Schule.

🇩🇪 Fahr zur Hölle! is a dramatic insult and less common in everyday speech than English go to hell. It sounds theatrical as well as angry.

🇩🇪 Leck mich am Arsch! is a very rude phrase, but it can also sound old-fashioned or theatrical because of its long history. In some regions you may hear shorter forms like Leck mich!.

💬 Adding scheiß- to the front of egal "all the same" turns up the intensity. Das ist mir egal is the polite version.

💬 The verb is ankotzen, built on kotzen "to puke", and the an moves to the end: Er kotzt mich an.

💬 spinnen literally means "to spin" thread, but in everyday speech it means acting crazy.

🇩🇪 Between friends it's usually teasing rather than insulting. From a stranger it can sound sharp.

💬 This is schimpfen "to scold" plus Wort "word", so literally a "scolding word".

💬 The plain verb form after nicht works as a polite instruction, just like on signs: Bitte nicht rauchen "Please don't smoke".