Curse Words in Spanish - what do they mean?

Question

I believe I started a discussion yesterday about curse words. Unfortunately, I cannot locate the string of emails/replies I received. It was all very good information and helped lead me to a conclusion as to their meaning. It appears that some, thought not all, words mean something different depending on the context of the sentence.

I had requested them for a tape i was transcribing for a law firm. They had asked me to translate the curse words. You were all so helpful. However, now I can't find the string of emails.

Can someone please explain where they are? Thank you. (I am new to this site. I appreciate your help.)

Barbara

Answer 1

Hi,

I am new to the site and did not intend to offend anyone. However, I was asked to do something rather quickly and did not know where to turn. I looked up each word in the dictionary, but the definition was different than what I thought they were. Therefore, I turned to your site. Everyone was so wonderfully helpful. Also, I did send a reply and gave the context of how the words were used. I guess that was deleted, too. The context is: two police officers were arresting someone and that person was cussing and saying other things in Spanish. My boss asked me to translate all of the Spanish conversation. I did not know what these words meant so I turned to you.

I thought you all gave such great information and it seemed like there was a very good dialogue going. If you would all email me at my personal email with your answers from yesterday, I would appreciate it. I'm at [e-mail].

Please understand that I have never used these words. I have only heard them when I was in high school. That was a long time ago, and I only guessed what they meant. I found all of your replies very informative and they helped me to draw from all of your opinions to come to a fair conclusion as to the definitions.

I was actually very surprised to find that the replies had been deleted. I truly apologize if I offended anyone, as that was not my intent. However, I can't let go of the fact that it was a very interesting string of emails and gave me a lot of information in such a short time. It was enough to help me figure out how to translate them.

Thanks again.

Barbara

Answer 2

HI Barbara, the thread was deleted. Have a look at this please:

[url=http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A772424]http://my.spanishdict.com/forum/topic/show'id=1710195%3ATopic%3A772424[/url]

Answer 3

Even if the thread wouldn't get zapped, I would be disinclined to help you out since you seem completely unwilling to provide any context as requested. So, just look 'em up in a dictionary, and good luck!

Answer 4

Curse words are not allowed in this forum; that's why the thread was deleted. Many curse words don't necessarily mean anything specific - they just are used when you intend to offend or insult others. The worst one that you can use is "¡Tu madre!" (Your mother!), where the intonation and the facial expression is much more offensive than any other word you can come up with. In Spanish you can use curse words to congratulate or salute people, and simple words to insult; the intention of the person who uses a word is more meaningful for us than the word itself.

You'll have to check a dictionary to find these words.