French is my first language, so I can help out here.
French speakers rarely ever say "sacre bleu" in real life, so steer clear of that one. "Mince/flûte/zut" are common, but, as mentionned in a previous comment, they're quite mild, the kind of thing you say when you've missed the bus, but only have to wait 5 minutes until the next one. "Merde" is very common, but is more likely to be used alone when you, say, spill something by accident; it literally means "shit", but can be equivalent to "fuck".
If I saw a huge. hairy spider in the shower (and I'm really, really afraid of spiders), I would probably scream something like: "Putain de bordel de merde!", which isn't really translatable, but is roughly equivalent to "Holy fucking shit!" It's got Parisian connotations, though. There are variations on it: "Bordel de merde!", "Bordel de Dieu!", "Putain de merde!" or just plain "Putain!" (which literally means "whore", but is rarely thought of as that, it's just an interjection). It depends on how badly the person is freaked out.
If the person isn't a natural curser (they do exist), s/he can just scream: "Nom de Dieu!"
My knowledge of German curses is more limited, I'm not certain if one would scream "Scheisse!" (shit) in that situation, as I think it's more linked to anger. "Gott in Himmel!" (God in heaven) might work.
no subject
Date: 2006-10-06 03:45 pm (UTC)French speakers rarely ever say "sacre bleu" in real life, so steer clear of that one. "Mince/flûte/zut" are common, but, as mentionned in a previous comment, they're quite mild, the kind of thing you say when you've missed the bus, but only have to wait 5 minutes until the next one. "Merde" is very common, but is more likely to be used alone when you, say, spill something by accident; it literally means "shit", but can be equivalent to "fuck".
If I saw a huge. hairy spider in the shower (and I'm really, really afraid of spiders), I would probably scream something like: "Putain de bordel de merde!", which isn't really translatable, but is roughly equivalent to "Holy fucking shit!" It's got Parisian connotations, though. There are variations on it: "Bordel de merde!", "Bordel de Dieu!", "Putain de merde!" or just plain "Putain!" (which literally means "whore", but is rarely thought of as that, it's just an interjection). It depends on how badly the person is freaked out.
If the person isn't a natural curser (they do exist), s/he can just scream: "Nom de Dieu!"
My knowledge of German curses is more limited, I'm not certain if one would scream "Scheisse!" (shit) in that situation, as I think it's more linked to anger. "Gott in Himmel!" (God in heaven) might work.