• comi [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I thought fuck was also an endlessly applicable word, depending on the intonation. I’m now wandering what mat I cannot transfer to English directly 🤔

    • sailorfish [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      Isn't it more about all the suffixes/prefixes? Fuck can't do:

      • A: Okhuyeli?! (Have [you] gone mad?!) Nakhuya (why) dokhuya (so much) khuyni (of stuff) nakhuyarili (you have loaded up)? Raskhuyarivay (unload [it]) nakhuy! (out of here)
      • B: Khuli?! (What for?) Nikhuya! (No way!) Nekhuy (No need) raskhuyarivat (to unload)! Nakhuyacheno ([It] got loaded) nekhuyovo! (quite well)! Pokhuyarili! (Let's go)
      • comi [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Some of them can be translated as the fuck? with correct intonation or with short word addition. нахуярили means either to beat up someone (fuck up someone) or to fuck up something or to drink a lot of alcohol (get fucked up), but yeah this one is not translatable without additional words. Расхуярить means to violently disassemble something.

        But you’re right something like ебануться is kinda hard, as it implies surprise/dismay without any sexual subtext, while its forms would be more accusatory like ебнулись? is close to saying you fucking donkeys. While ебаться is completely sexual word, and very heavily one at that.

    • Wertheimer [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Classic scene from The Wire, where two detectives solve a cold case using only variations of "fuck": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdfwFDZGnUk

      • comi [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 years ago

        Yeah this what I’ve had in mind or british/australian swearing. This scene can be translated with all four russian swear words directly and make sense tbh.

        But also is there english equivalent of something like ‘poshlo po pizde’, go by the way of cunt (direct translation, sorry), meaning ‘entered a spiral of fuck ups’?

        • Wertheimer [any]
          ·
          4 years ago

          Can't think of anything similarly succinct, but maybe someone else can help us out.

          "Up shit creek" usually implies bad luck rather than bad decisions. "Clusterfuck" is, regrettably, only a noun.

          • comi [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Oh yeah, bad luck can also be implied, so up shit creek sort of fits. Clusterfuck is close to end state, so translation would be polniy pizdets (pizdets is a derivative word implying various fucked state of situation).