In an excerpt from a French play, I came across the line:

Je me foutais de l'argent.

The word is glossed on the page and defined like this:

se fouter de = se moquer de

I can't find "fouter" so I'm wondering if it's a typo?? Is it supposed to be "foutre"? Does that work for "se moquer de"?

Merci d'avance!

 

se foutre not se fouter

Yeah se foutre is se moquer; see also, se ficher (as in je m'en fiche) and s'en contrefoutre

 

OK, great. Merci mille fois!

 

Caution : the inititial meaning of foutre is very rough.
Nowadays almost nobody knows the initial meaning, but even with the actual meaning , you must use it with some caution depending on the hearing
As a matter of fact, it is as the word "fuck" in english : same initial meaning, same current use now

 

Returning to this thread. Can someone give me some examples of how "se foutre de" will clearly mean "se moquer de"? Je me fous de toi? (I'm making fun of you?) Il s'est foutu de moi? (He made fun of me?)

I don't want to use this in a way that will come across as vulgar -- now that I mention it, I'm not really sure how to use "se foutre de" in a vulgar way.

Thanks!

 

« Je me fous de toi » could mean either :
1) I'm taking the piss out of you
2) I don't care a damn about you
Once more, it depends on the context. If you want to make it clear that you mean « se moquer », you could say : « je me fous de ta gueule ». (more polite : « j'me paye ta tête/ta tronche »)

On the other hand, « il s'est foutu de moi » means "he took the piss out of me" or "he fooled me" (but far less polite - I don't have a slang equivalent in English, sorry) .

I really don't know how not to use « se foutre de » in a vulgar way.

 

Ah, interesting. So, despite the expression using the word "foutre" (which, when you look it up and see some of the definitions using the word "fuck," one assumes this is a pretty serious and strong word), using the word in "Je m'en fous de...." really isn't vulgar? Sorry if I come off dense as I sort this out.

 

I'm sorry I wasn't clear in my last post « je m'en fous de » is vulgar and slang, although pretty common.

 

Thanks, philosophia -- you were clear, I didn't read carefully. Thanks again!

 

Actually I should have said : I really don't know how not to use « se foutre de » in a not vulgar way.
Too many negations...

 

What about " I don't care" or "What do I care?"

 

je m'en fous/fiche
qu'est-ce que j'en ai à faire/foutre