I think there is a problem with the learning of foreign expletives (or obscenities), without learning the social context of where they are acceptable or unacceptable. Even if it is just so that you know how to cause intended offence

A word that is a bit tricky in German is Geil. Those of us with Swiss friends might be under the impression that it is interchangeable with a harmless cool, hot, wicked, awesome... etc. Except its literal meaning is horny or randy. Definitely something that is not going to go down well with your parents-in-law, or around little kids

my parents-in-law speak Italian - but I've learned my best swearing from them

It's mega-geil

I used to go to school with heaps of Italians, we used Italian words that were far rougher than than the English ones we'd dare use at the time. When I occasionally hear them used in Zurich it brings back nostalgic memories

I'd did get a laugh out of a Milan based friend when I exclaimed "Porco miseria" a few years ago. Ahh the memories are flooding back.

über-geil.

ober-affen-geil

I remember when visiting in friends in Norway taking the kids to the Cinema to see the The Chronicles of Narnia which was being shown in English and sub-titled in Norwegian.

I was a bit taken aback to see one of the adverts in which a man built up to a crescendo of annoyance until he let out a huge showstopping yell of "The f..k it does!

Not quite what I had in mind or expected when taking kids aged 3-8 to the movies....but my mate explained that in Norway the word wasn't seen as that big a deal.

"Über" isn't used as slang by Germans, it merely has become a part of English internet slang. Exhibit A.

You see this often in Scandinavia, the word is thrown about. TV ads, cinema ads, film titles... the word has a diluted value there. But to say 'Satan' or even better 'Satans jävlar i helvete' (Satans little devils in Hell) is considered to be strong. Much like in French a certain monosyllabic extract of Scunthorpe is casually used. I wince every time the mother-in-law makes use of it in English.

mmm ya , had a Swedish colleague who used to greet me with "Hey muthaf***er" & a great big droopy grin .... must have tried at least twelvety times to explain his error but it never got through. V embarrassing when trying to look cool & casual in the bars of Gothenburg ...

Except that you can also translate it as cool or mega or wicked depending on use. This is the difference between slang use and literal. Hence granny might turn round and say this schnapps ist geil...

Heya

My initial understanding of geil was the traditional German one ...

So when walking one evening through the Hauptbahnhof in Zürich with my dog and someone calls out "Geile Hund " I was a little surprised and so just kept walking, thinking that was wierd... he he funny now but slightly embarrassing for me at the time ( not sure of why though ... )

Enjoy

kt

that reminds me of a mega-geil movie I stumbled across the other day with two young ladies and a bottle of something.

That was proper Geil, that was or so they made it seem

ü-hüüre-geil

The ultimate word with Geil in it, has got to be ....

"es ist arschtittengeil, maan"

Duden says it is usable and means "grossartig" in Jugendsprache.. (and as you prolly all know: Duden is always right )

Still, my parents used to yell at whenever I used it (my favourite was "arschgeil") and would never accept my Duden-argument. But it's being used more and more on TV so I guess also non-native speakers should feel free to use it! After all it is an etymological unicum that should be preserved...

Nothing nicer as sitting on a train/tram/bus and hearing someone talk in his/her mother tongue interspersed with "geil mahn" and "goen mir go fooden"?

"Oberaffentittengeil" has three times more hits on Google.

Uhm usable? I hope no bank spokesperson now thinks that he should talk about geil performance during the last fiscal year, with especially arschtittengeil volume increases in Q4, in his next press release

My father wasn't allowed to say "lässig" in school, nowadays it just means cool, neat. How the times change...

I think you've got a good point. But I'd go further and say that foreigners who are unable to speak a language like a native speaker and who speak it with a foreign accent just aren't convincing when they use expletives/obscenities and dialect words in a language that isn't their own. It just sounds fake to me, if not downright silly and might be more likely to cause amusement/irritation than convey the meaning the person intends. A bit like wearing someone else's national costume.

I knew I had a picture somewhere in my collection with the word "Geil" on it.

Here. Taken at last years' Extasia....

from leo: ENGLISCH DEUTSCH 12 Treffer Unmittelbare Treffercool adj. [coll.] geil [ugs.]def adj. (Amer.) [sl.] geilhorny adj. geil [vulg.]lewd adj. geil [vulg.]lustful adj. geil [vulg.]phat adj. [sl.] geil [sl.]prurient adj. geil [vulg.]randy adj. - sexually arousedgeil [vulg.]ruttish adj. geil [vulg.]salacious adj. geil [vulg.]voluptuous adj. geil [vulg.]wicked adj. (Brit.) [sl.] geil [sl.]

and this thread is 3rd on google for arschtittengeil