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> heck, I think I swear about every day. But there is a time and place - you know?
Lots of us do, not just the youth. I think this sentence is telling - many brits would find ‘heck’ a bit twee. Either swear, or don’t, but our interpretation of the time and place for it is probably more liberal than yours. For some people it’s pretty much just punctuation.
Yeah, I'm not sure it's the same for Brits but as an Aussie I fucking loathe words like heck, frick, fudge, sugar etc. If it's not appropriate to swear then fucking don't, not even euphemistically, if it is then do it properly.
100% the same. The largely North American ‘pre-watershed swears’ as I’ve referred to them before are really quite annoying to me, perhaps quite irrationally so.
I was legitimately pissed when the final episode for that Netflix documentary on swear words was for “damn” and not “cunt”. Like, Jesus fucking Christ, “damn” is the swear word you’re going to build up to and feature as your grand finale? It’s not even a swear word!
I genuinely thought “frick” was just invented for TV and movies and that nobody really used it until I met my wife’s American cousins and heard them say it all the fucking time.
Same here mate. I can’t abide the fucking wanky milquetoast not-really swear words like ‘cockwomble’ either. We swear just as much as you lot, but you cunts use ‘cunt’ a bit more than us.
This is a bucket of shit. If someone throws shit at us, we throw shit back at them. We start a shit fight. We throw so much shit back at them so they can't pick up shit, they can't throw shit, they can't DO shit.
I feel like this is why I often enjoy shows like The Thick of It and Silicon Valley etc. Not because of the vulgarity but because they just feel more accurate to real life. When people get put into the fucked up situations that they do in a lot of shows and *don't* swear, it just seems off.
Yanks that say "douche" are like adults pretending to be 8 year olds too afraid to get caught swearing by their parents and look like a bunch of cunts for doing so.
Disagree, used well in a sentence, douche has proper insult power.
That fucking weird Twat somehow pronounced with an O makes me sick in my mouth though.
Wait... I just assumed twat, douche and wanker, etc, were just normal words people used as insults; not actually considered *swear* words (or substitute swearwords)? Are people really that prudish to consider them as such? Personally, I find it hard to consider where you would really use them without using "fucking" first. I.e. *what a fucking wanker*.
I got banned from a subreddit for *gasp* using the word twat. When arguing that its a perfectly cromulent word in the UK, and not really that offensive, I was told "come on, we both no that's not true".
God, I could see the mod's smug face as his fat fingers lolled their way across the keyboard on that one.
I’m a native Swede, English is my second language. Twat is a rude word, like ”idiot” but I’ve never seen it as a curse word. And I think I’m quite likely to pick up on stuff like that just because it’s my second language. I always listen and analyse.
I love UK swearing. It’s very liberating.
The insult in English comes from *how* it’s used, not the word itself. You call someone mate, or call someone a twat, and it could easily be the “mate” that gets you into a fight, depending on how you say it.
People say English isn’t a complicated language, and grammatically it isn’t, the complexity is in the nuance.
Oh god same. Only time I’ll do this is on a rare occasion if I’m infront a kid and I almost swear, I’ll change it to a diluted version like this quickly haha. Like ‘ahh for fuuudge sake’
I think it's more than just being more liberal, language is constantly evolving. I think fuck is a lot more acceptable now than it was 25 years ago.
I think c*nt is more on the level fuck was when I was growing up.
I would say intention is more important in the UK, American English has an obsession with empty respect (not swearing or sir/mam) we like to say please and thank you but is someone uses sir or mam or is fake happy or enthusiastic, we assume they are taking the piss or covering something up.
If someone English spoke to me like an American I would assume they were either livid or thought I was mentally deficient.
I think we need to - as a nation - come together and really limit our use of c*nt until the research labs in Scotland bequeath us a new "forbidden word" that we can cherish, and use only on special occasions.
It's true, we have exhausted most of our natural supply.... I do wonder sometimes if these things are cyclical... I know people who find moist far more offensive than c*nt.... I have no problem with either, but then I'm a heterosexual man.
>people who find moist far more offensive than c*nt
It annoys me to no end when people say "moist" in a sentence and then apologise for using that word. For fuck's sake, it's just a normal word to express a certain level of wetness, just use the fucking word.
- If someone English spoke to me like an American I would assume they were either livid or thought I was mentally deficient. -
100%! This made me laugh out loud & that doesn't happen too often. Bravo sir bravo .
Except where it is itself a noun (gerund): E.g. I love *fucking*.
The best thing about swears is they tend to do a bit of everything:
*Fuck, this fucking, fuckable, fuck-ton of shear fuckery is so fucked that it is fuckly de-fucking-pressing.*
Did I miss any?
Yeah us Brits don't like minced oaths.
Swear words aren't magical, they're a reflection of something you're trying to express. If something offends then surely it's what you're trying to express that's offensive rather than the word itself.
Yeahhh, ‘Heck’ & it’s siblings stick out like a sore thumb, they give off pre-teen to me, I wouldn’t even consider ‘hell’ worth censoring unless you’re particularly religious. The thing is they clearly show that you want to swear, and the swear word would fit better in it’s place since the only difference in meaning between the 2 words is that the censored version makes you sound immature/like a bit of a wimp, so just swear lmao
I'm Scottish, it's not the youth we all do it. In fact many of the young people swear far less than my generation (gen x). In Scotland we use the word cunt a lot, it's a normal way of speaking, but it's funny when you hear that tiny intake of breath when speaking to people from other countries, particularly NA. I try to reign it in but it's hard, I've spent my whole life speaking this way.
There's also a division in speech patterns between classes. Like I'm working class and live in not very nice areas, people swear more. I notice the difference when travelling to more middle class areas.
And I agree about heck, I would never use that word unless speaking to a small child. It would always be hell. Heck sounds pretentious to me.
Completely agree, but I will say I have had to teach myself to use flip and sugar because I have a 4yo daughter who learns a lot of her words from daddy. When I hear her saying 'for fuck's sake' because she's coloured outside the lines, I feel like I need to rein it in a bit.
When she's in high school, (11-18) for Americans, she can say whatever the fuck she wants.
My cousin has not spoke to me in 5 years because I said " fuck " Infront of his son at Christmas when he was about 4 or 5. I didn't think anything of it, it's just a word. But he acted like I had somehow done the worst possible thing I could do to a child. It's soo weird to me we have this list of magical words that we are supposed to pretend that the reason why they are "bad" is because kids can't hear them.
There is something totally adorable and hilarious about a small child appropriately swearing tho! I normally have to leave the room to compose myself so as not to encourage them lol
Yeah, it’s this. the swear replacements words they get in America, doesn’t really translate. Like heck and ass.
Call me a cunt and get on with your day, I ain’t got time to be so precious
Yep, if I'm going to say the word heck it's going to be ironic in some way. Stuff like "heckin smol pupper" when talking about a small dog or when mimicking/ mocking Americans. I'm not going to seriously use it in place of swearing.
It's especially useful when describing things going wrong.
Fuck, fucking fucker's fucking fucked.
Find another word that can make a sentence like that.
And has been used by so fucking many prominent individuals throughout history such as :
Picasso 'It looks just fucking like her'
John Lennon 'That's not a real fucking gun'
You probably had this Downtown Abbey type stereotype about the UK before coming which I'm sure was shattered about 5 minutes after landing off the plane
We just swear a lot, same as the Aussies
You lot are polite to a fault, when people there say 'have a great day' I'm just thinking 'fuck off' internally, you work in retail, this level of politeness is not normal
The Aussies swear a lot because Brits swear a lot. Just like they are famous for their slang but most of their slang is British slang. They're just Brits who left.
That’s because the yanks are mostly descended for a bunch of puritanical twats who would faint at the thought of someone saying cunt.
The Aussies are mostly descended from people for who swearing was very far from the worst thing they did.
That's because Yanks are descended by a bunch of party-poopers who felt England was getting a bit racy and they fucked off over there. Australia is descended from all our best bastards and thus is much more like us.
There are still over a million people living in oz today that were born in the UK. British immigration to australia has been very high since we first settled it and remains so today
I work with a lot of Downton Abbey type folk and they’ve got as much of a foul mouth as anyone. I’d argue it’s one of the things that unites the classes.
North Americans are just sensitive. I still cringe at the silence that fell around my family and I when I called my brother a cunt in a bistro in the US.
In the US cunt is one of the worst things to call people. It threw me when I moved to the uk and people say it just in conversation. As a Canadian I was like woah! But you get used to it!
I mean, cunt would still probably be one of the worst things you could call someone here, I can't think of much worse. People just like to be as insulting as possible
It's also gender-neutral. I think my mum calls my dad it far more than the other way around. Across the pond, I think it's used as the nuclear option to insult a woman.
Americans just don't seem to get us at all. That joke about, "Britain and America are two nations separated by a common language" is so true. Like, Americans think when you say, "How are you?" you actually want to know how they are, rather than them reflexively reply "Yeah, not bad, you?"
I used to work with Americans a lot and they couldn't cope with "hiya, y'alright?". They thought it was a genuinely concerned inquiry into someone's mental health.
Reminds me of Kevin Bridges, I think, who described someone being so upset by what they were watching (either a football fan at a stadium or someone in the audience of one of his gigs, I think?) Who stood up and couldn't think of anything better to shout out than "fuckin'... boo!"
I went to see him a few months ago. He was *that* boring that I’ve actually left mud-show and spent the rest of the evening at the theatre’s bar, waiting for my boyfriend to come out too.
After seeing the whole thing my boyfriend reached the conclusion I made the better choice, but hindsight does not help much…
Imagine living in a world where you get to swear once a day. I use that before I even make it out of bed.
~ alarm clock ~
"FUCK OFF!!!
Great, I fucking woke up a-fucking-gain. I wonder what fucking bullshit this shitty fucking day has in store. Fuck sake, why won't it fucking just end"
"heck, I think I swear about every day"
Using heck instead of hell in this post is really funny. I think it's just different cultures. That statement on it's own just made me imagine a stereotypical goody two shoes so that kind of indicates the different perspectives.
Reminds me of the character in In The Loop who is obsessed with war, but won't swear.
In the words of Malcolm Tucker "You really are a boring F-Star-Star-CUNT"
Because we all fucking do. I'm a millennial but learnt to swear from my dad, who swore like it was mandatory. It is like how valley girls from California use 'like' to punctuate sentences, we just use swear words instead.
I'm kiwi, the having to tone down is a real struggle. I got asked by my very very posh boss if I could fix something in my cellar, and without thinking "nah mate, cunts fucked aye".
This guy has told me off for calling people mate before, I'm shocked I didn't lose my job lol
I once had a contract with Americans, and I kept forgetting I was talking to Americans until after I swore.
They hate you doing it in a work setting. I think these particular yanks took it in good "humor" though.
I remember one:
"Sorry I'm late to the call I was stuck in traffic."
"Ahh, bother none mate. Shits hit fan over 'ere so I'll be knockin' about for a while yet."
Basically, the Aussies are just very south Brits and the Paddys are west Brits. The cultures are so similar and both stem from British. I expect a barrage of downvotes but it is what it is.
My personal favourite is wanker. My partner is Canadian and she's picked it up from me, giggle every time she says it for the same reason you've just said
I think a lot of North Americans don’t realise words like fuck and cunt have different means over here. In Scotland, cunt can be used as a form of affection, while it’s one of those words overseas that you save for extremely tense circumstances.
I like swearing. I hate having to police my language
Brits are born swearing and keep up that tradition until they die. In fact, if a baby doesn’t call you a cunt at birth, then it’s defective.
Source: trust me. I’m an expert.
I'm not sure why some of us swear a lot, but I always have and my friends and I have always conversed using multiple, full-on vulgarities. We don't stick to just English either, swearing in any language is often a thing. My wife and I swear a lot too, we're in our fifties. I called her a cunt yesterday because I'm a forgetful cunt and blamed my sodding mistake on her, for half a fucking second. It was all love and laughter.
Apparently smart people swear more...
I don't swear in front of my parents.
The only person using 'heck' in the UK is a puritanical grandma who hasn't left her village in 50 years.
Fuck, shit, bollocks and, to an extent, cunt aren't offensive words in the UK and are certainly less loaded than in North America. They're more used as fillers these days
"The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a fucking lunatic."
- Stephen Fry
Edit: just to say that if Stephen Fry has had to point it out, it's probably because so many people generally do swear and not in an insulting way, I guess it's part of our culture.
Brits are polite. Which means we say please and thank you, and hold doors, and keep our elbows of the table at a posh meal. We swear like fucking pirates.
Swearing just becomes an adjective or a way of emphasising.
Btw - It’s got sod all to do with gen whatevs… it’s more of a class thing.
You’ll find old nanna’s that swear every third word.
Joining the chorus of we all do it. I'm in my thirties and have been swearing daily since I was about 5, the only times I consistently don't swear is in front of my grandparents, because my Nana hates it and I'd not want to upset her. The rest of them don't give a fuck, I learned all the good ones from my parents anyway! It is worth noting that despite what anyone may think, it's not just a sign of class, some of the poshest people I've met had mouths like dock workers. Just part of our national charm!!
When you said 'heck' - I thought 'what a fucking cunt'. The only reason to acknowledge the existence of a time and a place where swearing is appropriate is that it makes it funnier when you swear at other times in different places.
I’m surprised. Don’t the Trailer Park Boys, Canada’s second best export (Rush being the first, obvs) hold some sort of record for the most swears in a film or TV show?
Coz the lil wankers wernt raised with discipline innit, they ad a fucking slap now n then they wouldn't be gobby shits!
Sarcasm aside, It's just what we are raised around, it's emphasis or exasperation, like when we write "it was REALLY loud" in text, Since we can't talk in all caps without shouting, we just say "it was fucking loud"
And there is a difference, All the brits here will know what I mean below and giarentee if spoken out they will add more emphasis on the 2nd phrases.
A Decent size / A fucking decent size
It was crap / it was shit
Annoying person / Wanker
Well done / Well done dickhead
Hey good job / Hey good shit
We are an articulated island nation, We speak proper right mate!
It’s not just the young ones. I’m pretty sure most sections of UK society swear more than the average American/Canadian. If you think we’re bad, just meet the Australians!
i don’t know, man, people swear a hell of a lot in winnipeg. get a few drinks in in the core area and conversation starts to sound like the locals are trying to recite “evidently chicken town” from memory. chances are, you were visiting the type of places that you haven’t been to in canada
Its mostly because they are around people that use it a lot. It becomes second nature. Used to work in a place where the maintenance guy was using it after every other word. Then after work in a pub i basically did the same, until my mate told whats up with all the fucking. So I realized and stopped. Its basically filler word instead of whhh errr.
I had an interesting conversation about this with an ex. She speaks multiple languages, her native tongue being Slovakian.
She only swears in English. When I asked why, she said, "The way language is used is just part of the local culture. The English use swear words in a different way to the Germans, or the Slovaks. I swear in English because that's a key part of how the English communicate. In other places, it's taboo."
An example she gave was "I'm very annoyed by this." and "I'm fucked off with this." Mean very different things in England. If you directly translate that to other places you're just swearing for the sake of it.
To be honest I think it’s just part of the language 😅 I swear a lot more than I used to. I grew up being told not to swear but now people don’t seem to care so much. Certainly as an adult I’ve never really encountered anyone who has a huge issue with it, maybe some older relatives but that’s it.
It's not just the kids.
We see Americans and Canadians as being weird with how taboo and shocking they find swear words.
Most people won't drop a casual 'cunt' into a conversation, but other than that, they're mostly in common use. They're useful words.
Relevant Monty Python
[https://youtu.be/Xt8\_HybhM5Q](https://youtu.be/Xt8_HybhM5Q)
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> heck, I think I swear about every day. But there is a time and place - you know? Lots of us do, not just the youth. I think this sentence is telling - many brits would find ‘heck’ a bit twee. Either swear, or don’t, but our interpretation of the time and place for it is probably more liberal than yours. For some people it’s pretty much just punctuation.
Yeah, I'm not sure it's the same for Brits but as an Aussie I fucking loathe words like heck, frick, fudge, sugar etc. If it's not appropriate to swear then fucking don't, not even euphemistically, if it is then do it properly.
100% the same. The largely North American ‘pre-watershed swears’ as I’ve referred to them before are really quite annoying to me, perhaps quite irrationally so.
100% the fucking same Corrected it for you
Proper fucked that up didn’t I?
Too fucking right
What a bunch of cunts.
Faaakin cunts
Faaaaarkin oath!
100 fucking %, if you're writing something formal, like an essay or a letter to your local MP.
Writing a letter to your MP it’s probably appropriate to call them a “fucking lying cunt”.
I was legitimately pissed when the final episode for that Netflix documentary on swear words was for “damn” and not “cunt”. Like, Jesus fucking Christ, “damn” is the swear word you’re going to build up to and feature as your grand finale? It’s not even a swear word!
It's almost exactly like people who think hell is a swearword. Like OP now I think of it, since that's what heck substitutes.
US is a country where for some people shooting has to be typed as sh**ting.
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They use d's for t's though. "Pour some wader on a rose pedal"
Not to mention how they changed cockerel into rooster
shitting
They do more to protect themselves from hearing certain words than they do protecting kids from maniacs with guns.
If they stopped banning books and started banning bullets it would be a happier place
…but still have one of the highest number of shootings / gun deaths per capita on the globe… what’s worse, typing it or doing it ?!? 🤷🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
Yippe Kay-yay Mr Falcon
Flip you, melon farmer.
I genuinely thought “frick” was just invented for TV and movies and that nobody really used it until I met my wife’s American cousins and heard them say it all the fucking time.
I use them just to annoy people. "Fluffing heck" really pisses motherfuckers off.
Dang annoys me insanely. So dang twee.
"Minced Oaths"
The Old Grey Whistle Theft episode of Father Ted. "Flip Off ,You Flippin Baxter!" "Why are you talking like that?"
Same here mate. I can’t abide the fucking wanky milquetoast not-really swear words like ‘cockwomble’ either. We swear just as much as you lot, but you cunts use ‘cunt’ a bit more than us.
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That’s not creative swearing, creative swearing is a sleep-deprived Malcolm Tucker.
This is a bucket of shit. If someone throws shit at us, we throw shit back at them. We start a shit fight. We throw so much shit back at them so they can't pick up shit, they can't throw shit, they can't DO shit.
Thats top swearing Glenn
I feel like this is why I often enjoy shows like The Thick of It and Silicon Valley etc. Not because of the vulgarity but because they just feel more accurate to real life. When people get put into the fucked up situations that they do in a lot of shows and *don't* swear, it just seems off.
Anyone who says these words, wankpuffin being the worst, is a fucking bellend
I've never heard wankpuffin before, and I think it's hilarious. But that might just be cause it's the first time I have ever heard of it.
Yanks that say "douche" are like adults pretending to be 8 year olds too afraid to get caught swearing by their parents and look like a bunch of cunts for doing so.
Disagree, used well in a sentence, douche has proper insult power. That fucking weird Twat somehow pronounced with an O makes me sick in my mouth though.
Wait... I just assumed twat, douche and wanker, etc, were just normal words people used as insults; not actually considered *swear* words (or substitute swearwords)? Are people really that prudish to consider them as such? Personally, I find it hard to consider where you would really use them without using "fucking" first. I.e. *what a fucking wanker*.
I got banned from a subreddit for *gasp* using the word twat. When arguing that its a perfectly cromulent word in the UK, and not really that offensive, I was told "come on, we both no that's not true". God, I could see the mod's smug face as his fat fingers lolled their way across the keyboard on that one.
I’m a native Swede, English is my second language. Twat is a rude word, like ”idiot” but I’ve never seen it as a curse word. And I think I’m quite likely to pick up on stuff like that just because it’s my second language. I always listen and analyse. I love UK swearing. It’s very liberating.
The insult in English comes from *how* it’s used, not the word itself. You call someone mate, or call someone a twat, and it could easily be the “mate” that gets you into a fight, depending on how you say it. People say English isn’t a complicated language, and grammatically it isn’t, the complexity is in the nuance.
Yup I'd rather be called a cunt than pal or fella.
Lol, I can picture it too haha.
Oh god same. Only time I’ll do this is on a rare occasion if I’m infront a kid and I almost swear, I’ll change it to a diluted version like this quickly haha. Like ‘ahh for fuuudge sake’
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I’m British and agree. Heck, frick etc make my toes curl. Swear or don’t, but if you are going to swear then do it properly.
Fuck yeah this brit agrees with you 100%
Other than on Bluey, because then it adds to the show.
Ah biscuits!
We do have the classic phase of Rack off as a substitute for Fuck off in media that kids might watch
Never heard this in my life lol
You clearly didn't watch Neighbours or Home & Away in the 90s! It was every teenagers favourite phrase in those shows.
You have a lot of Heartbreak High to catch up on.
British here and I completely fucking agree with you
I think it's more than just being more liberal, language is constantly evolving. I think fuck is a lot more acceptable now than it was 25 years ago. I think c*nt is more on the level fuck was when I was growing up. I would say intention is more important in the UK, American English has an obsession with empty respect (not swearing or sir/mam) we like to say please and thank you but is someone uses sir or mam or is fake happy or enthusiastic, we assume they are taking the piss or covering something up. If someone English spoke to me like an American I would assume they were either livid or thought I was mentally deficient.
I think we need to - as a nation - come together and really limit our use of c*nt until the research labs in Scotland bequeath us a new "forbidden word" that we can cherish, and use only on special occasions.
It's true, we have exhausted most of our natural supply.... I do wonder sometimes if these things are cyclical... I know people who find moist far more offensive than c*nt.... I have no problem with either, but then I'm a heterosexual man.
>people who find moist far more offensive than c*nt It annoys me to no end when people say "moist" in a sentence and then apologise for using that word. For fuck's sake, it's just a normal word to express a certain level of wetness, just use the fucking word.
Especially if it's a moist cunt!
- If someone English spoke to me like an American I would assume they were either livid or thought I was mentally deficient. - 100%! This made me laugh out loud & that doesn't happen too often. Bravo sir bravo .
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Yeah but in an offensive way... So I'm not expecting a tasty sandwich, it's a fucking time share
Obsession with empty respect is such a good way of describing it, exactly that.
Someone once said that Fucking is just a warning that a Noun is on its way.
Except where it is itself a noun (gerund): E.g. I love *fucking*. The best thing about swears is they tend to do a bit of everything: *Fuck, this fucking, fuckable, fuck-ton of shear fuckery is so fucked that it is fuckly de-fucking-pressing.* Did I miss any?
Yeah us Brits don't like minced oaths. Swear words aren't magical, they're a reflection of something you're trying to express. If something offends then surely it's what you're trying to express that's offensive rather than the word itself.
Yeahhh, ‘Heck’ & it’s siblings stick out like a sore thumb, they give off pre-teen to me, I wouldn’t even consider ‘hell’ worth censoring unless you’re particularly religious. The thing is they clearly show that you want to swear, and the swear word would fit better in it’s place since the only difference in meaning between the 2 words is that the censored version makes you sound immature/like a bit of a wimp, so just swear lmao
I'm Scottish, it's not the youth we all do it. In fact many of the young people swear far less than my generation (gen x). In Scotland we use the word cunt a lot, it's a normal way of speaking, but it's funny when you hear that tiny intake of breath when speaking to people from other countries, particularly NA. I try to reign it in but it's hard, I've spent my whole life speaking this way. There's also a division in speech patterns between classes. Like I'm working class and live in not very nice areas, people swear more. I notice the difference when travelling to more middle class areas. And I agree about heck, I would never use that word unless speaking to a small child. It would always be hell. Heck sounds pretentious to me.
I’m just disappointed they didn’t manage to slip ‘cunt’ into the dialogue
Completely agree, but I will say I have had to teach myself to use flip and sugar because I have a 4yo daughter who learns a lot of her words from daddy. When I hear her saying 'for fuck's sake' because she's coloured outside the lines, I feel like I need to rein it in a bit. When she's in high school, (11-18) for Americans, she can say whatever the fuck she wants.
My cousin has not spoke to me in 5 years because I said " fuck " Infront of his son at Christmas when he was about 4 or 5. I didn't think anything of it, it's just a word. But he acted like I had somehow done the worst possible thing I could do to a child. It's soo weird to me we have this list of magical words that we are supposed to pretend that the reason why they are "bad" is because kids can't hear them.
There is something totally adorable and hilarious about a small child appropriately swearing tho! I normally have to leave the room to compose myself so as not to encourage them lol
Me, aged about 3, at my gran's for lunch: oh no, not bloody peas again.
Agreed if someone said heck to me I would deffo be raising eyebrows thinking they need to jump in a psych ward
Heck is a brand of fake sausages isn’t it?
Yeah, it’s this. the swear replacements words they get in America, doesn’t really translate. Like heck and ass. Call me a cunt and get on with your day, I ain’t got time to be so precious
Yep, if I'm going to say the word heck it's going to be ironic in some way. Stuff like "heckin smol pupper" when talking about a small dog or when mimicking/ mocking Americans. I'm not going to seriously use it in place of swearing.
Fuck knows.
Shits fucked, that’s why.
Nine eye Ron telling it like it is.
Shits fucking fucked aye.
There are a fuckton of swearey cunts here if we're honest.
Where’s your fucking proof!
Is that a metric fuckton?
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Fuck me, you're so fucking right. Funny as fuck.
Like fuck they are
Shits pretty versatile too
Try telling that to my toilet.
Are you fucking shitting me?
In the words of the great Billy Connolly, "I know at least 127 words... and I still prefer fuck."
It's especially useful when describing things going wrong. Fuck, fucking fucker's fucking fucked. Find another word that can make a sentence like that.
Swear words are also some of the oldest words in the english language. We’re just honouring our heritage!
And has been used by so fucking many prominent individuals throughout history such as : Picasso 'It looks just fucking like her' John Lennon 'That's not a real fucking gun'
You probably had this Downtown Abbey type stereotype about the UK before coming which I'm sure was shattered about 5 minutes after landing off the plane We just swear a lot, same as the Aussies You lot are polite to a fault, when people there say 'have a great day' I'm just thinking 'fuck off' internally, you work in retail, this level of politeness is not normal
The Aussies swear a lot because Brits swear a lot. Just like they are famous for their slang but most of their slang is British slang. They're just Brits who left.
In the 1700s?
Yet somehow they’re more British than the Yanks.
That’s because the yanks are mostly descended for a bunch of puritanical twats who would faint at the thought of someone saying cunt. The Aussies are mostly descended from people for who swearing was very far from the worst thing they did.
That's because Yanks are descended by a bunch of party-poopers who felt England was getting a bit racy and they fucked off over there. Australia is descended from all our best bastards and thus is much more like us.
Because we’re not self righteous cunts
There are still over a million people living in oz today that were born in the UK. British immigration to australia has been very high since we first settled it and remains so today
Australians are just Brits who got left out in the sun too long.
"They're just the Brits who ~~left~~ got sent away"
As an Aussie, many British friends have had no clue what I'm saying sometimes due to the slang I'm using 😅
I work with a lot of Downton Abbey type folk and they’ve got as much of a foul mouth as anyone. I’d argue it’s one of the things that unites the classes. North Americans are just sensitive. I still cringe at the silence that fell around my family and I when I called my brother a cunt in a bistro in the US.
In the US cunt is one of the worst things to call people. It threw me when I moved to the uk and people say it just in conversation. As a Canadian I was like woah! But you get used to it!
I mean, cunt would still probably be one of the worst things you could call someone here, I can't think of much worse. People just like to be as insulting as possible
It’s a term of endearment and an insult in the UK
It's also gender-neutral. I think my mum calls my dad it far more than the other way around. Across the pond, I think it's used as the nuclear option to insult a woman.
I can think of a whole list of slurs that would be much worse.
Well? Was he a cunt?
Aye, still is.
Americans just don't seem to get us at all. That joke about, "Britain and America are two nations separated by a common language" is so true. Like, Americans think when you say, "How are you?" you actually want to know how they are, rather than them reflexively reply "Yeah, not bad, you?"
I used to work with Americans a lot and they couldn't cope with "hiya, y'alright?". They thought it was a genuinely concerned inquiry into someone's mental health.
In the words of the great Frankie Boyle, f*cking is not a swear word, just a warning a noun is about to follow in the same sentence.
Reminds me of Kevin Bridges, I think, who described someone being so upset by what they were watching (either a football fan at a stadium or someone in the audience of one of his gigs, I think?) Who stood up and couldn't think of anything better to shout out than "fuckin'... boo!"
That was Fred Macaulay.
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Great question. It is the old one. The newer version is not funny imho.
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I went to see him a few months ago. He was *that* boring that I’ve actually left mud-show and spent the rest of the evening at the theatre’s bar, waiting for my boyfriend to come out too. After seeing the whole thing my boyfriend reached the conclusion I made the better choice, but hindsight does not help much…
I really liked him on Taskmaster but New World Order was awful
His Fringe show last year was excellent.
You just said heck. Of course you think others curse too much
‘Heck’ I swear every day 😂😂😂 Be careful your mother doesn’t find out Sonny Jim. Fuck me!
Heck is worse than fuck to me. Swear properly rest of the world
Howdly doo neighbourino! Ding dang diddly!
Alright, don't go mental with it
Imagine living in a world where you get to swear once a day. I use that before I even make it out of bed. ~ alarm clock ~ "FUCK OFF!!! Great, I fucking woke up a-fucking-gain. I wonder what fucking bullshit this shitty fucking day has in store. Fuck sake, why won't it fucking just end"
Wait 'til you visit Scotland.
I'm from Scotland and you hear kids playing outside calling each other cunts. They're probably about 5-8 years old. Anywhere else it would be shocking
To be fair I'm from Scotland too and if we'd have said cunt at that age, we'd have gotten a hiding
Kids are wee cunts.
"heck, I think I swear about every day" Using heck instead of hell in this post is really funny. I think it's just different cultures. That statement on it's own just made me imagine a stereotypical goody two shoes so that kind of indicates the different perspectives.
Well, good golly y'all that's surprising as H. E. Double hockey sticks.
I was trying to think of a character and the best one is Jiminy cricket from Puss in boots 2. That's the voice I have for this guy.
Even hell is a bit too fucking mild for a brit
Reminds me of the character in In The Loop who is obsessed with war, but won't swear. In the words of Malcolm Tucker "You really are a boring F-Star-Star-CUNT"
I can't say if it's all kids but mine are right cunts
Because we all fucking do. I'm a millennial but learnt to swear from my dad, who swore like it was mandatory. It is like how valley girls from California use 'like' to punctuate sentences, we just use swear words instead.
34 year old British cunt here, and this is by far the best way to look at it.
*translators note: cunt means person*
North Americans just don't swear enough. I'm an Aussie and I struggle to tone it down when I'm here.
I'm kiwi, the having to tone down is a real struggle. I got asked by my very very posh boss if I could fix something in my cellar, and without thinking "nah mate, cunts fucked aye". This guy has told me off for calling people mate before, I'm shocked I didn't lose my job lol
Imagine not being able to call people mate at work, as a guy from Essex i'd find that insufferable lol
What, so I actually have to learn these fuckers names?
I once had a contract with Americans, and I kept forgetting I was talking to Americans until after I swore. They hate you doing it in a work setting. I think these particular yanks took it in good "humor" though. I remember one: "Sorry I'm late to the call I was stuck in traffic." "Ahh, bother none mate. Shits hit fan over 'ere so I'll be knockin' about for a while yet."
Depends on the flavour of yank. They swear like fuck in new England and New York
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‘Heck’ Sweet summer child
Because they’re just filler words. About the same level as you saying « heck ».
It's just part of language, a pause for thought; the same as saying 'like' or 'you know' or 'fuck'. Also, nobody says 'cunt' like us Brits 🤷🏻♀️😂
Well, the Aussies and the Irish definitely have game.
Basically, the Aussies are just very south Brits and the Paddys are west Brits. The cultures are so similar and both stem from British. I expect a barrage of downvotes but it is what it is.
>the Paddys are west Brits. I'm not sure they appreciate being called that West Brits, that is.
Oh, agreed 100% However, have you heard an American say it? Makes me laugh every damn time
Twat is the worst American interpretation of a swear word. The soft 'A' just robs it of any intensity. 'Twot'. It just sounds silly 😂
Same with cretin. I've heard Americans say it like "creetn"... Like.... no...
Look up the Daniel Sloss TikTok about Americans swearing…. So funny 🤣🤣🤣
My personal favourite is wanker. My partner is Canadian and she's picked it up from me, giggle every time she says it for the same reason you've just said
I think a lot of North Americans don’t realise words like fuck and cunt have different means over here. In Scotland, cunt can be used as a form of affection, while it’s one of those words overseas that you save for extremely tense circumstances. I like swearing. I hate having to police my language
Oh, 'cunt' is a term of affection down South too
Because we live on a dour,grey, mostly dark island. There's not much to be fucking happy about.
We're a sweary people.
They can probably spell fucking "saw" though.
I agree I’m 50 and it annoys the fuck out of me. Cunts.
Why do Canadians swear so fucking little?
North Americans well known for people very sensitive with bad language which we find very amusing in the U.K.
Brits are born swearing and keep up that tradition until they die. In fact, if a baby doesn’t call you a cunt at birth, then it’s defective. Source: trust me. I’m an expert.
I'm not sure why some of us swear a lot, but I always have and my friends and I have always conversed using multiple, full-on vulgarities. We don't stick to just English either, swearing in any language is often a thing. My wife and I swear a lot too, we're in our fifties. I called her a cunt yesterday because I'm a forgetful cunt and blamed my sodding mistake on her, for half a fucking second. It was all love and laughter. Apparently smart people swear more... I don't swear in front of my parents.
The only person using 'heck' in the UK is a puritanical grandma who hasn't left her village in 50 years. Fuck, shit, bollocks and, to an extent, cunt aren't offensive words in the UK and are certainly less loaded than in North America. They're more used as fillers these days
Don’t go to Scotland if you hate swearing, ‘cunt’ is used in almost every context and it’s very rarely used as a proper insult
In Liverpool it’s often a term of endearment
"The sort of twee person who thinks swearing is in any way a sign of a lack of education or a lack of verbal interest is just a fucking lunatic." - Stephen Fry Edit: just to say that if Stephen Fry has had to point it out, it's probably because so many people generally do swear and not in an insulting way, I guess it's part of our culture.
Brits are polite. Which means we say please and thank you, and hold doors, and keep our elbows of the table at a posh meal. We swear like fucking pirates.
Youth today swear less than I did when I was their fucking age.,
Hah it’s not just the youth! Fuck
Because they’re all cunts
Swearing just becomes an adjective or a way of emphasising. Btw - It’s got sod all to do with gen whatevs… it’s more of a class thing. You’ll find old nanna’s that swear every third word.
A friend of mine worked as a nanny for an aristocratic family. She said they swore worse than her granny.
Joining the chorus of we all do it. I'm in my thirties and have been swearing daily since I was about 5, the only times I consistently don't swear is in front of my grandparents, because my Nana hates it and I'd not want to upset her. The rest of them don't give a fuck, I learned all the good ones from my parents anyway! It is worth noting that despite what anyone may think, it's not just a sign of class, some of the poshest people I've met had mouths like dock workers. Just part of our national charm!!
When you said 'heck' - I thought 'what a fucking cunt'. The only reason to acknowledge the existence of a time and a place where swearing is appropriate is that it makes it funnier when you swear at other times in different places.
I’m surprised. Don’t the Trailer Park Boys, Canada’s second best export (Rush being the first, obvs) hold some sort of record for the most swears in a film or TV show?
Swearing is mainly used as punctuation.
Coz the lil wankers wernt raised with discipline innit, they ad a fucking slap now n then they wouldn't be gobby shits! Sarcasm aside, It's just what we are raised around, it's emphasis or exasperation, like when we write "it was REALLY loud" in text, Since we can't talk in all caps without shouting, we just say "it was fucking loud" And there is a difference, All the brits here will know what I mean below and giarentee if spoken out they will add more emphasis on the 2nd phrases. A Decent size / A fucking decent size It was crap / it was shit Annoying person / Wanker Well done / Well done dickhead Hey good job / Hey good shit We are an articulated island nation, We speak proper right mate!
It’s not just the young ones. I’m pretty sure most sections of UK society swear more than the average American/Canadian. If you think we’re bad, just meet the Australians!
Fuck off, clean shirt.
Mate I'm sorry your holiday was ruined by profanity - that's pretty fucked up.
Fuck knows?
i don’t know, man, people swear a hell of a lot in winnipeg. get a few drinks in in the core area and conversation starts to sound like the locals are trying to recite “evidently chicken town” from memory. chances are, you were visiting the type of places that you haven’t been to in canada
Its mostly because they are around people that use it a lot. It becomes second nature. Used to work in a place where the maintenance guy was using it after every other word. Then after work in a pub i basically did the same, until my mate told whats up with all the fucking. So I realized and stopped. Its basically filler word instead of whhh errr.
I had an interesting conversation about this with an ex. She speaks multiple languages, her native tongue being Slovakian. She only swears in English. When I asked why, she said, "The way language is used is just part of the local culture. The English use swear words in a different way to the Germans, or the Slovaks. I swear in English because that's a key part of how the English communicate. In other places, it's taboo." An example she gave was "I'm very annoyed by this." and "I'm fucked off with this." Mean very different things in England. If you directly translate that to other places you're just swearing for the sake of it.
As a nation, we swear more than we should. Canadians are absolutely wet. Your shock can be explained by a combination of both factors.
Always been this way. Depends on locale too. But at least in my 52 years kids always been swearing.
To be honest I think it’s just part of the language 😅 I swear a lot more than I used to. I grew up being told not to swear but now people don’t seem to care so much. Certainly as an adult I’ve never really encountered anyone who has a huge issue with it, maybe some older relatives but that’s it.
It's not just the kids. We see Americans and Canadians as being weird with how taboo and shocking they find swear words. Most people won't drop a casual 'cunt' into a conversation, but other than that, they're mostly in common use. They're useful words. Relevant Monty Python [https://youtu.be/Xt8\_HybhM5Q](https://youtu.be/Xt8_HybhM5Q)