Last night the Girlfriend was watching Chatty Man (for those who don't know what this is, it's a comedy show presented by British comedian Alan Carr) and the cast of "The Inbetweeners" were guests on the show. Again for those who don't know, "The Inbetweeners" is a funny sit-com about four young guys and their "adventures" in life. It's hilarious and she would recommend anybody to watch it if you get the chance.
Anyway, to get to the point, the cast was there to promote their new film and as they usually do they were telling jokes and funny anecdotes, of which one in particular made the Girlfriend smile, because it was about a funny linguistic misunderstanding. They said they were in Spain to film and they were told the word "culo" meant "good" . It makes sense if we think that "culo" sounds a bit like "cool" and that they even probably thought it was spelt "coolo" or something like that.Thus, whenever asked how they were, they used to reply "culo" with a big smile on their faces and thumbs up.
Brilliant. The problem is that "culo" in Spanish means "ass" (same as in Italian by the way).
Now, the Girlfriend can't help you with Spanish, but she can try to avoid you some awkward misunderstandings if you ever wanted to visit Italy. You never know, you might find somebody with a great sense of humour like those poor Inbetweeners guys.
Therefore here's a handy list of the most common Italian swear words, their pronunciation and their English translation.
culo (koo-loh) = ass
merda (mehr-dah)= shit
cazzo (kat-zoh)= dick
testa di cazzo (tes-tah dee cat-zoh)= dickhead
puttana (poot-tah-nah)= bitch
figlio di puttana (fee-lly-oh dee poot-tah-nah)= son of a bitch
vaffanculo (vahf-fahn-cooloh)= fuck off (it literally means, much more politely, "go and fuck in the bum". )
va' a cagare (vah ah cah-gah-reh)= piss off, even though it literally means "go and shit yourself"
va' a farti fottere (vah ah fartee phot-teh-reh)= fuck you, it literally means "go and get fucked"
finocchio (fee-nohk-kee-oh)= faggot
bastardo (bastardoh)= bastard (as you can easily guess!)
There would be many more, but this is more than enough as a start.
Wow. The Girlfriend must admit this was a good way to get rid of the stress, you should try too.She also hopes this list will be useful to you.If you visit Italy and somebody tells you that "culo" means "good", don't believe them.