how to curse in japanese

learn to how to curse in japanese with examples!

I'm not really into showing people how to curse in japanese, but I believe it is necessary to know some of them to understand certain contexts and anime, movies and manga.

how to curse in japanese

Also, it's good to be prepared to know when someone is cursing us in Japanese in order to react appropriately. Nobody likes to be insulted without knowing what's going on or what they're talking about. Is not it?

Because of this fact, I decided to gather information about the words that Japanese people use the most to curse, and make it available in the Japanese language. I hope these words are useful at some point.

Mouse over the kanji to see their reading and meaning.

ばか

idiot, stupid, dumb, silly, silly, clown, goof and the like

ばか者

Synonymous with baka

馬鹿野郎

idiot, stupid, clown, son of a whore

馬鹿を言う

Talking nonsense, garbage, rot

馬鹿馬鹿しい

absurd, ridiculous, crazy

阿保

Synonymous with baka

ドジ

faux pas make a stupid mistake

ブス

ugly woman, baranga

タコ

In addition to having the meaning of octopus, this word also serves to call someone cowardly or fearful.

間抜け

idiot, stupid, retarded

気持ち悪い

disgusting, nasty

気色悪い

Synonymous with kimochiwarui

くず

Garbage, scum, scum

畜生

devil, brute, animal, drug, fuck

糞

shit, damn

くそったれ

Garbage, scum, scum

糞食らえ

Go to hell! Damn it! Screw it!

下手糞

Good for nothing, clumsy, clumsy

化け物

devil, monster, goblin, something very ugly

ボケ

lazy, vagrant, bum, airhead

変態

Filthy, gross, perverted, sex maniac

Truths and lies about cursing in Japanese

According to what I've read in some books, Japanese people don't usually swear, at least not in the way we do. Generally speaking, a Japanese person's cursing is softer, more discreet, or more polite. Also, most of the words used as swear words are seen in books, manga, anime and movies, but not in everyday Japanese. Honestly, I didn't really believe it. How is something that appears in cultural expressions like movies and series not part of everyday Japanese? This I didn't believe very much.

How to curse in Japanese using katakana

Japanese curses can also be written in katakana, abandoning their kanji form. These cases seem to be more common in anime and manga. It is said that this has more impact on the reader, giving a greater emotional effect to the dialogues.

Swearing in Japanese with Various Meanings

The most used word for cursing in Japanese is 馬鹿, which can have a wide range of meanings and derivations. In addition, there are also rumors that in some regions, some name calling is not as aggressive as in other regions.

A very interesting case is that of baka and aho (which may have the O prolonged as ahou). Dictionaries usually identify these two words as synonyms, but in the Osaka region, aho is not aggressive cursing, while baka can be too strong a word to swear at someone there. The opposite occurs in Tokyo, where baka is less offensive than aho. Of course I'm taking into account the intonation of the voice and the context of the conversation.

Another interesting thing about this subject is that some curses, like baka, can be used as a prefix or suffix of other words, forming derivatives and more derivatives. A good example of this is sensei-baka with similar meaning to master donkey or donkey teacher. This can be a great way to vary the words used for cursing in Japanese.

You can also be a way of cursing in Japanese

In some animes I noticed that the characters used words like kisama, temee and onore. I was even more confused when I looked up their meaning in the dictionary. For the first two words, their meaning is you and the meaning of the last one is me.

After paying attention to the intonation of the voices and the meanings given by the translators, I realized that there is a general consensus on the matter. As these words are also used for cursing in Japanese, they can have the meaning of bastard, damn you, miserable, cursed and other things like that.

Another interesting expression is kono yarou, which literally means this guy. Furthermore, it also has the same sense of kisama and the other words mentioned above.

Image credits belong to I'm worth.

Kanji calligraphy exercise

Below are the Japanese ideographic symbols used in this article. Selecting the desired kanji, copy and paste them into Worksheet for Kana and Kanji Practice , a new window will open where you can view the printable file and practice Japanese calligraphy by covering the gray symbols and then trying to write yourself. Just print and practice