It has been said that people who swear often are also more intelligent. French culture prides itself on its intellectualism and logic, so it stands to reason that swear words are also important. I will say that I have taken several different languages in school, and French was the only one where the teachers taught you the French swear words. This tells me that they are indeed very important to French culture. There are many French swear words, but some are more useful than others due either to their popularity or their versatility.

Here is a list of 10 indispensable French swear words for you to try out on your next visit! As with all vulgar language, these words can be seen as normal in the company of friends, but can also be seen as extremely insulting depending on the context. I have used asterisks next to each word to denote vulgarity.
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10 Must Know French Swear Words

Zut

Zut is a the least vulgar, must know French swear word. It basically just means darn and can be exclaimed in any number of situations. If you drop a french fry on the ground, you may exclaim, Zut! You can even add to it and say, zut, alors! for emphasis. This is a word that can be said without worry as it is pretty tame.
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Putain**

Putain is your all purpose French swear word. You know how some English speakers love to use the F-word? They will use it to express emotions ranging from happiness to pain to anger and anything in between. Well, putain is its French swear word equivalent. They love it so much that they even shorten it to pute to save time! So, putain serves the same function as the word fuck in English.

It can be used in a variety of ways to express many different emotions. This word should be used with caution. Just like the F-bomb in English, you can use it quite liberally, but only in certain company and situations. It would be wildly inappropriate to hear a child say it in public and you shouldn’t either. Check out this Ode to the word putain to get a full understanding of its usefulness!
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Salaud/salope**

Salaud means bastard and salope means bitch in English. Just like their English counterparts, these two French swear words can be used to express that someone is a jerk, scumbag, or mean. Of course, this is more forceful than just saying imbécile.
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Connard/connasse/con**

Asshole! As you know, French is a gendered language and words must match in gender and number with what they represent. We have three versions of this word because connard is the masculine form, connasse is feminine and con is a shortened version that can be used for both. Hey look at that, a bonus grammar lesson while you learned to say asshole in French! Who says learning can’t be enjoyable?
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Merde*

This is my personal favorite French swear word. I say it often, probably more often than I should! But, merde, it fits so easily into a sentence. Merde literally means shit, and there are many colorful expressions you can use with merde in them. You can être dans la merde (be up shit’s creek) or se foutre dans la merde (get it all wrong, literally to put yourself in the shit). Merde is also used the wish someone luck. It is similar to saying break a leg in English.  
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Ta gueule**

You may also hear ferme ta gueule! This is an impolite way of telling someone to be quiet (tais-toi in French). A gueule is an animal mouth, and the word became slang for face. So you are literally saying shut your animal face, but it translates more to shut the hell up, and it is not something you would want to say in formal situations. One of my favorite things about languages is the creativity of the insults!
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Je m’en fous**

This is another one of my favorite French swear words, or expressions if you will. It means, I don’t give a fuck. I learned French while I was a high school student in Belgium which may explain why I was so drawn to this particular one. Yes, I was quite rebellious in my youth.
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Je m’en fiche*

This also means I don’t give a fuck, but in a slightly less vulgar way.
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Va te faire foutre**

This mean go fuck yourself. Please do not say it in everyday conversation. Anything that translates as having the f-word in it is just as bad to say in French as it is in English. But, this can be quite useful when being hit-on at a bar or cut off in traffic, for example.
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Enculé de ta mere***

So, I saved the absolute worst for last. This is maybe the most vulgar French swear word I know. It means mother fucker. OMG! Did I just say that? Sorry, but I told you it was the worst one I knew.
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