Chinese Swear Words: 25 Real Curse Words with Pinyin
🇨🇳 Chinese · 25 cards · B1 · by Wei Lin
These are the words that get bleeped in TV dramas and starred out in Weibo comments, not the ones in your textbook. I ordered the deck by strength: it opens with the soft stuff parents aim at their own kids (笨蛋, 二百五, and my hometown favourite 瓜娃子 from Chengdu), works through 该死, 滚 and 妈的, and finishes with the 逼 family, 婊子 and 贱人, which start real fights. Two warnings. Tone and relationship decide everything — 牛逼 is praise, 傻逼 is an insult. And the internet softens the spelling (靠 for 操, 卧槽 for 我操), so a word can look tame in text and still sound filthy out loud. Every card has pinyin with tone marks plus a note on how hard it lands; read the note before you say anything.
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How to use this deck
Flip through the cards, then switch to Quiz. Tap the play button on any row to hear it. The full table below is there to read, print or copy into your own flashcard app.
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All 25 cards
| # | Chinese | Pronunciation | English | Example | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 笨蛋 Very mild. Parents say it to kids and couples say it playfully. Literally "stupid egg". | bèndàn | idiot, dummy | 你这个笨蛋，钥匙又忘带了。 You dummy, you forgot the keys again. | |
| 2 | 傻子 Mild. Most often heard in the pattern 把我当傻子 ("take me for a fool"). | shǎzi | fool, moron | 别把我当傻子。 Don't treat me like a fool. | |
| 3 | 白痴 Mild to medium. Originally a clinical label for severe intellectual disability, so it lands harder than 笨蛋. | báichī | idiot, imbecile | 他开车像个白痴。 He drives like an idiot. | |
| 4 | 二百五 Mild, old-fashioned, a bit comic. Literally "250". The number itself is normally said 两百五 (liǎng bǎi wǔ) for prices, which is why 二百五 reads as the insult. | èrbǎiwǔ | half-wit, moron | 他是个二百五，说话从来不靠谱。 He's a half-wit; nothing he says is reliable. | |
| 5 | 瓜娃子 Sichuan dialect (Chengdu, Chongqing), mild and usually affectionate. Widely understood now thanks to TV and short videos. | guā wázi | idiot, silly thing | 瓜娃子，下雨了还不收衣服。 You silly thing, it's raining and the laundry is still out. | |
| 6 | 神经病 Medium. Literally "neurological illness" and still used as a lay term for mental illness, so it is doubly offensive. Very common as a standalone shout at annoying behaviour. | shénjīngbìng | psycho, nutcase | 半夜给我打电话，神经病！ Calling me in the middle of the night — what a nutcase! | |
| 7 | 废物 Medium. Cruel aimed at someone else, extremely common online as self-mockery. | fèiwù | good-for-nothing, waste of space | 我今天什么都没做完，真是个废物。 I got nothing done today, I'm such a waste of space. | |
| 8 | 不要脸 Medium. Literally "doesn't want face". A moral accusation rather than a dirty word, so even grandmothers say it. | bùyàoliǎn | shameless, to have no shame | 抄别人的作业，真不要脸。 Copying someone else's homework — totally shameless. | |
| 9 | 该死 Mild. Works alone as "damn it!" or as 该死的 + noun. Literally "deserves to die". | gāisǐ | damn, damn it | 该死的闹钟没响。 The damn alarm didn't go off. | |
| 10 | 滚 Medium but very aggressive in delivery. Literally "roll". Friends use it playfully as 滚吧 or 快滚. | gǔn | get lost, get out | 你给我滚出去！ Get the hell out of here! | |
| 11 | 滚蛋 Medium, rougher than plain 滚. Related: 滚开, and the harsher 滚出去. | gǔndàn | get lost, piss off | 滚蛋，我不想再听了。 Piss off, I don't want to hear any more. | |
| 12 | 去死 Strong. Said in real anger, but 去死吧 can also be mock-exasperation between close friends — tone decides. | qù sǐ | drop dead, go to hell | 你去死吧！ Go to hell! | |
| 13 | 混蛋 Medium. A staple of dubbed films and dramas. Also written 浑蛋. | húndàn | bastard, jerk | 那个混蛋居然骗了我。 That bastard actually lied to me. | |
| 14 | 王八蛋 Fairly strong. Literally "turtle egg"; 王八 also implies a cuckolded husband, which is where the sting comes from. | wángbādàn | son of a bitch, bastard | 那个王八蛋卷了钱跑了。 That son of a bitch ran off with the money. | |
| 15 | 放屁 Medium, crude. Literally "to fart". Used to reject what someone just said; related noun 屁话 = "nonsense". | fàngpì | bullshit, to talk rubbish | 放屁！我根本没说过这话。 Bullshit! I never said that. | |
| 16 | 靠 Mild in practice, though it is a softened stand-in for 操. Usually 我靠. Note 靠 is also the ordinary verb "to lean on, rely on", so context tells you which one it is. Fine with friends, not in a meeting. | kào | damn, shit | 靠，又下雨了。 Damn, it's raining again. | |
| 17 | 卧槽 Medium. An internet respelling of 我操, so it looks harmless in text but still sounds vulgar out loud. Expresses shock, good or bad. | wò cáo | holy shit, whoa | 我一看余额，卧槽，只剩十块。 I checked my balance — holy shit, ten yuan left. | |
| 18 | 妈的 Medium. Literally "mother's", a clipped 他妈的. The most common muttered curse; the full form is stronger. | mā de | damn it, dammit | 电脑又卡住了，妈的。 The computer froze again, dammit. | |
| 19 | 他妈的 Strong. Works as an exclamation or as an intensifier before the verb (often clipped to 他妈). Written TMD online. | tā mā de | goddamn, fucking | 你他妈的给我闭嘴。 Shut the fuck up. | |
| 20 | 操 Very strong. Stands in for the taboo character 肏 "to fuck"; censored online as 草 or 艹. Read cào here — the same character is cāo in 操作, 体操. | cào | fuck | 操，我钱包丢了。 Fuck, I lost my wallet. | |
| 21 | 傻逼 Very strong. 逼 is a vulgar word for the vagina. Fighting words; written SB or 傻B to dodge filters. | shǎbī | dumb fuck, stupid asshole | 少跟那个傻逼说话。 Stop talking to that dumb fuck. | |
| 22 | 牛逼 Vulgar in form but positive — it is praise. Clean versions: 牛 or 牛掰. Fine with friends, too crude for work. | niúbī | fucking awesome, badass | 你这球打得太牛逼了！ You played that shot so damn well! | |
| 23 | 装逼 Vulgar. Describes pretentious posturing; the offender is a 装逼犯. Milder synonym: 装. | zhuāngbī | to show off, to put on airs | 他就喜欢在朋友面前装逼。 He just loves showing off in front of his friends. | |
| 24 | 婊子 Very strong and misogynistic; 婊 means "prostitute". Learn to recognise it, think hard before ever saying it. | biǎozi | bitch, whore | 她在背后骂我是婊子。 She called me a bitch behind my back. | |
| 25 | 贱人 Strong. 贱 means "cheap, low". Aimed mostly at women and a fixture of TV melodrama fights. | jiànrén | bitch, contemptible person | 我再也不想见到那个贱人。 I never want to see that bitch again. |
Wei Lin
Native zh · Speaks English
Grew up in Chengdu, live in Vancouver. I build Mandarin decks with pinyin and tone marks on everything, and I test them on my own kids.
Published
Questions about this deck
- What is the most common swear word in Chinese?
- 妈的 (mā de) and its full form 他妈的 (tā mā de) are the everyday all-purpose curses, roughly "dammit / goddamn / fucking". 操 (cào) is the strongest word you will still hear constantly, and 靠 (kào) is its tame substitute. Learn those four first and you will understand most of the swearing around you.
- Why do so many Chinese insults mention mothers and eggs?
- Insulting someone's mother attacks the whole family's honour, which is why 妈的, 他妈的 and 你妈 sit at the centre of Mandarin swearing. The 蛋 ("egg") in 笨蛋, 混蛋 and 王八蛋 is just a suffix labelling a type of person — "that stupid one", "that rotten one" — so those are milder than the mother-based curses.
- Is 牛逼 rude if it means something good?
- Yes. It is a compliment with a vulgar body part inside it: 逼 is a crude word for female genitals. Keep 牛逼 for friends, teammates and gaming, never a job interview or a message to a teacher. Say 很厉害 (hěn lìhai) or just 牛 (niú) for the same praise without the vulgarity.
- What do 草, 艹, TMD and SB mean in Chinese comments?
- They are filter-dodging spellings. 草 and 艹 stand for 操 (fuck), 卧槽 stands for 我操 (holy shit), TMD is 他妈的 (goddamn), and SB or 傻B is 傻逼 (dumb fuck). They look tame on screen but carry the full force of the originals when read aloud.
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