Swearing in Colombia – watch your mouth!

Having lived in Argentina and Mexico before, and having been taught by teachers from Spain at university, I’ve been exposed to various different ‘Spanishes’. If you’re familiar with ‘castellano argentino’ and Spanish-from-Spain, you’ll have heard a lot of swear words; the Spanish and the Argentinians like to swear and in Argentina at least, the locals will find it hilarious to hear you trying out your newly-learned curses. But be careful about swearing in Colombia! The Colombians don’t swear much, and often try to replace swear words with other words when expressing their frustration at something… for example, ‘hijo de puta’ (son of a b*tch) becomes “hijo de madre (son of a mother) / hijo de puente (son of a bridge(!)) / hijo de no-sé-qué (son of I-don’t-know-what). Similarly ‘puta’ (b*tch/wh*re) becomes ‘pucha’, and ‘mierda’ (sh*t) becomes ‘mier..coles’ (Wednesday).

Some Colombians will find it funny to hear you spout verbal diarrhoea but others will look surprised or even offended. Swearing is considered much ruder here than in other Spanish-speaking countries, so just be sure of who you’re talking to before you start showing off, because once the damage is done, it’s done!