oh, for F*ck's sake... is this an infix in Mandarin?

[geek_frappa]

if you wanted to say, for F*ck's sake (out of frustration), how would you phrase this in Standard Mandarin? do we treat it as we would any normal infix or what other part of speech?

[anonymoose]

I don't quite understand what you are getting at here. What does infixes have to do with this? I doubt infixes are seen much if at all in Chinese since the majority of morphemes consist of single characters.

As for oh, for F*ck's sake, I don't think a literal translation would be very meaningful. But a whole multitude of Chinese expletives could be used equivalently to express frustration.

By the way, sorry to hijack your thread, but can anyone tell me how to say frustrated or frustration in Chinese? It seems like this is one of those words that doesn't have a very close Chinese equivalent.

[dan ni er]

Yes I think you are right, there is no real direct translation for frustrated. I think in such circumstances most Chinese would just say "wo hen fan".

[gato]

Maybe "无奈" would do?

[Lu]

A friend of mine says chou2si3 wo3, 愁死我, when he is frustrated or a bit desperate about something.

[gougou]

How about 郁闷? At least in Beijing, this seems to cover everything from slight displeasure to extreme frustration.

[adrianlondon]

I like to use "gan", said sharply in the 4th tone.

However, this is from Taiwan; it doesn't seem to upset the Beijing locals enough for my liking :-) I can just say "cao" instead (same sharp 4th tone) but that's more severe than I want.

[geek_frappa]

谢谢

[Yang Rui]

You could say 肏！cao4 but it's very strong, as adrianlondon indicated. To tone it down a bit you can say 靠! kao4. You can also add the word 我 on the front eg 我靠!

Being a good boy, i never swear in Chinese. I've just never known it get a good reaction. Therefore I don't recommend using the above phrases at all, as they are very uncouth.

I think a good way to express general exasperation or frustration is (我的)天啊！

[wai ming]

I often hear people say 气死我了！when they are frustrated or mad.

[heifeng]

You could say 肏！cao4 but it's very strong, as adrianlondon indicated. To tone it down a bit you can say 靠! kao4. You can also add the word 我 on the front eg 我靠!

haha basically visit any pool hall or internet and you'll here these every 30 seconds....

[Yang Rui]

haha basically visit any pool hall or internet and you'll here these every 30 seconds....

Very true, but i'm not sure that such sophisticated people as chinese-forums.com members should be aiming for this level of communication.

Seriously though, most of the time when i've tested this vocab, i've been met with looks of horror and disappointment that i would use such disgusting words. But then maybe that's because most Chinese people seem to see me as a 斯文 or 温文尔雅 kind of guy.

As with all languages, you have to pick your moment and your context - to point out the obvious, i'm sure that a gang of drunk mates wouldn't object, but you do have to be careful in public.

[geek_frappa]

first, thank you everyone for your responses. this is good learning about variance in what might be perceived as a narrow, vulgar vocabulary.

Very true, but i'm not sure that such sophisticated people as chinese-forums.com members should be aiming for this level of communication.

agreed, but this is for educational purposes.

Seriously though, most of the time when i've tested this vocab, i've been met with looks of horror and disappointment that i would use such disgusting words. But then maybe that's because most Chinese people seem to see me as a 斯文 or 温文尔雅 kind of guy.

i get the same reaction because we live in a shame-based society where "gentlemen" take bribes morning, noon and night, beat their wives, and go on frequent business trips to visit their second and third wives.... but i digress...

As with all languages, you have to pick your moment and your context - to point out the obvious, i'm sure that a gang of drunk mates wouldn't object, but you do have to be careful in public.

don't forget coffee drinkers...

[gato]

Seriously though, most of the time when i've tested this vocab, i've been met with looks of horror and disappointment that i would use such disgusting words. But then maybe that's because most Chinese people seem to see me as a 斯文 or 温文尔雅 kind of guy.

It's probably because the Chinese don't expect foreigners to swear in Chinese. I'm surprised when I hear someone Chinese saying "fuck" or "shit" in China, though "shit" seems particularly popular among Chinese college students for some reason -- that and the word "sucks" all by itself, without any subject.