Have you ever stubbed your toe or spilled halušky on your pants in polite Slovak company - and groped for the right expression to vent your feelings? Those exotic swear words expats learn before they can count in Slovak won't do when real adults are close by.
But boorishness is easy to avoid: the Slovak preposition do ('to', pronounced doh) that introduces so many of the language's curses may also precede universally acceptable exclamations. So, if the do has already slipped out, all is not lost, since it's always OK to say Do kelu! ('to the kale'), Do frasa! ('to the devil') or Do paže! ('to the arm').But boorishness is easy to avoid: the Slovak preposition do ('to', pronounced doh) that introduces so many of the language's curses may also precede universally acceptable exclamations. So, if the do has already slipped out, all is not lost, since it's always OK to say Do kelu! ('to the kale'), Do frasa! ('to the devil') or Do paže! ('to the arm').
English is easier - most swearwords used in locker rooms eventually turn up around staff-room water coolers and even at family picnics. Not so in Slovak. The careless curser (neopatrný nadávač) will offend co-workers, neighbours, and worse yet his partner's parents. He will be branded the odious neslušný (impolite), and find his off-colour comments giving birth to awkward silences.
The following is a guide to some of those Slovak words that may be used anytime and anywhere for those heated situations where other exclamations spring to mind. Each word or phrase has been deemed suitable by the exceedingly slušná (polite) Slovak mother of one of our reporters.
