putain

What it means

1. 1.

   Damn; bloody hell. The most common French expletive, expressing anything from awe to fury.

2. 2.

   As an intensifier before a noun: putain de voiture, 'bloody car'.

3. 3.

   In the south, and especially Marseille, putain functions as near-continuous punctuation with almost no force at all.

   Its literal meaning is a slur for a sex worker, which is worth knowing even though almost no speaker intends it.

Examples with translations

• Putain, il fait froid!

  Bloody hell, it's cold!

• Putain de bordel, où sont mes clés?

  For God's sake, where are my keys?