What better topic to follow Disney movies with than profanity? Don’t read further if you’re offended by such things.

Growing up in my family this would have been called plumbing talk, but I think it’s really better suited to taxi rides, since that’s where you’re going to encounter this the most. So picture it. You’re in a taxi on your way to that new Dongbei joint when some schmuck cuts over into your lane and before you know it your driver is giving him an earful. Well don’t just sit there. After all, you’ve been practicing for just such an occasion.

Swearing in Shanghainese isn’t much different than swearing in any other language. It’s basically F your mom and all that, and pretty much follows along Mandarin swearing. And where better to start than with the ubiquitous 肏, or as it appears in Shanghainese, 册/冊. The most common of all spoken curses in Shanghai has got to be 册那. In this case 那 is actually 亻那 as one character (㑚) but isn’t supported by Unicode, but has limited font support. You’ll also see it as 哪, for the same font-based reason. 册 meanwhile is just 肏 with a different character to show the difference in sound.

If 册 isn’t doing it for you, you can also substitute a number of other words, including 赤 or 尺, both of which are also [tsʰɑ], ru sheng.

But what of their mother? Surely she’s not innocent in this whole ordeal before you. It’s worth noting that you’re not going to see 妈/媽 involved as much as in Mandarin. Instead most cases use 娘/孃. Note that 个 can be pronounced [əʔ] or [gəʔ].

Admittedly, this is jumping right into things. Maybe you want to build up to it instead. Like Mandarin, Shanghainese uses gǔn 滚, which though literally is “roll”, is used more like “bugger off”. And of course, when cursing in China, you can never forget the eggs.

That’s right. You tell them their mom’s eggs can just rooolll away. Maybe 蛋 doesn’t quite get it across the way you’d like. Why not try 卵 [lø]?

Finally, for the less bold, there’s always 靠, working just fine on it’s own.

Now that the damage is done, a quick disclaimer: I’ve heard stories of foreigners who’ve decided to give an argument everything they’ve got. With a quick utterance of 草泥马 things became violent. Don’t expect these things to be received well. We take no responsibility for you getting your ass beat.

Got something to add? If you have other Wu insults or curses, leave them in the comments.