Un vrai con

I don't swear here quite so much as I do in English. I can't stand the way most of the french curses sound - there is nothing more coarse than a deeply nasal "putainnnnnnnnnnn de mayarde".

There is one though that I really love: "Con".

You pronounce it "cone," but with a nasal "o" and without the "n." It literally means "cunt." But somehow it doesn't seem to be quite so reviled as the English word.

It's used everywhere and anywhere:

C'est un vrai con - "He's a real dick/prat/asshole."
Petit con! - "Little Prick!"
Gros con! - "Fat bastard!"
Connard - "Wanker".
Connasse - bitch.

I really hate the latter, the feminin alternative, to me it just sounds so deeply offensive. A homeless guy shouted it at me one day in St Michel but it's not generally so widely used.

My favourite is "faire une connerie" which means literally to fuck up. I was under the mistaken assumption earlier in my life here that it meant to get things a bit muddled up and until relatiively recently and was happily using it at business meetings and in "polite society".