10 Synonyms To Use Instead Of F*ck

How to say f*ck (without actually saying f*ck)

F*ck is a remarkable word. Sure, it’s vulgar, but it’s impressive how many different things it can express. F*ck can literally mean “to have sex.” But, it can also be used as a modifier for emphasis, as in “you’re f*cking kidding me.” F*ck is also used as a way to describe being treated badly or roughly.

For such a useful word, there are, sadly, situations where f*ck is not appropriate. That’s why we’ve put together this list of synonyms for that little F-word that you can reach for next time the situation calls for it.

WATCH: What Are Synonyms For The F Word?

One of the easiest ways to get around saying f*ck is just to … f*ck a bit with the spelling and pronunciation. Early Netizens caught onto this quickly and began spelling f*ck or f*cker (meaning “a worthless person”) as fux0r, which was later shortened to just fux.

In many other applications, as seen across social media, fux can be used as versatilely as the word f*ck itself, whether sexually (I want to fux you) or abusively (fux you). These uses of fux can soften the vulgarity of f*ck and, as with fux0r, bypass internet censorship and filtering.

The clever internet folks don’t just have fux as a way to get around censors. Internet-based acronyms are incredibly handy ways to get around actually saying f*ck. There are any number of these types of F-word acronyms, but here are a few you’re most likely to come across, online and in real life:

FU: f*ck you

GTFO: get the f*ck out

STFU: shut the f*ck up

CTFU: crack(ing) the f*ck up

GMFU: got me f*cked up

While these acronyms span from humorous to serious, how mad can anyone get at you for some vulgar letters? If they do, F-them, right?

We all make mistakes, which is to say we all f*ck up sometimes. But, instead of screaming vulgarities, why not use the more colorful expression I screwed the pooch? To screw the pooch is “to make a big or humiliating mistake.”

The less literal the better with this one, folks.

F*ck is a great way to add emphasis to just about any expression. That’s where we get expressions like shut the f*ck up, as in “seriously, you really need to stop talking.” But, instead of saying something this vulgar to someone (like, say, a child), try using the minced expression shut the front door. It conveniently has the same rhythmic beat and sound as shut the f*ck up but is way more PG. Shut the front door can be used as a replacement for shut up or as a rhetorical exclamation of surprise. Think: “You’re kidding me! He really said that? Shut the front door!“

For a non-English take on f*ck as a modifier, there’s the handy Spanish-language word verga. Verga can mean “penis,” but also “rod,” “f*ck,” “hell,” and just about any vulgarity, it seems. This is a word we can get behind.

There are many popular Spanish-language expressions that use verga. Me vale verga, literally “it’s worth a penis to me,” means basically “I don’t care.” Vete a la verga, another choice phrase, is “f*ck you” or “go to hell.” There’s also a la verga, used to convey excitement or shock, like Holy sh*t! Verga isn’t the only Spanish word for f*ck. Far from it …

Chingar is a vulgar Spanish slang verb meaning “to f*ck,” and is used about as widely and variously as the English verb. Chingar has a couple meanings: “to f*ck with” (screw with) or “to f*ck” (have sex with) somebody. It’s prevalent in Latin America as well as in Mexico where it can also mean “to knock back drinks.”

One form of chingar is chingada, a “f*cking thing,” which can be used like English’s intensifier f*cking. La chingada can also mean “a crappy situation”—plus it also refers to the real town in Veracruz, Mexico!

If chingar doesn’t do it for you, give coger a try. Literally meaning “to grab or “to take” in Spanish, coger is used as a Latin American vulgar slang term for “to f*ck.”

Spanish isn’t the only foreign language with raunchy vocab for f*ck. French might be known as the language of love, but it can get pretty seedy, too. See: baiser.

While it used to mean “to kiss,” these days, when used as a verb, baiser is vulgar French slang for “sex.”

Even native French speakers need to be careful when using baiser. For example, Je veux te donner un baiser means “I want to give you a kiss,” while Je veux te baiser means “I want to f*ck you.” That’s a pretty big difference in intent …

While we are across the pond visiting our Francophone friends, we can also nip across la Manche (that’s the English Channel to us Anglophones) to visit the English, who have their own colourful language for f*ck. To say “have sex,” the English use the euphemistic shag as in, “I shagged her last night” or “fancy a shag?”

Americans might be familiar with the expression from the 1999 Austin Powers film The Spy Who Shagged Me, a play on the James Bond classic The Spy Who Loved Me.

There are lots of loan words in American English from Yiddish, a language that is a mix of German, Hebrew, and other languages spoken by Jews from Eastern Europe. We have Yiddish to thank for words like chutzpah and bagel … and shtup.

Originally shtup meant “to bother” or “to annoy.” But in typical yiddish fashion, the word came to mean “to have sex with” sometime in the 1960s. As in, “I shtupped her three times last night, and still she kvetches [complains]!”