Hey everyone, Dana here! And I recently did an Ask An American video on some of the swear
words that I use in English, and so now today I'm going to make a video talking about some
of the fake swear words that Americans use. So phrases that people use in the U.S. instead
of saying something vulgar or offensive. As I mentioned in the video that I did on swearing
last year -- which, I will link to both of those previous videos down below -- it really
seems to me like people in Europe, at least where I've been, seem a lot more chill about
swearing and at least swearing in English; they really just don't seem to care about
it that much. Whereas in the U.S., a lot of people really are kind of bothered by swearing.
Especially if you do it in front of kids. They might be like, you know, "Hey! No swearing
in front of the kids!" Or if the parents hear you they might also reprimand you, why did
you swear in front of my kids? Or at least give you, like, the stink eye.
So that's why a lot of people in the U.S. try to replace their swear words with these
innocent phrases.
For example, "fudge" is a commonly used replacement word instead of "fuck." And as you'll notice
with a lot of these, the replacement word often starts with the same letter or sound
as the swear itself. Which makes it pretty easy to substitute it for the swear word.
And it also, it kind of still is pretty satisfying to say it. You know, if you stub your toe,
"fudge!" Yeah that feels, still pretty good. Fuck! Fudge! It's okay.
Another one: if someone says something that really surprises you, instead of saying, like,
"No way! Shut the fuck up!" Some people say "No way! Shut the front door!"
And again, if someone says something astonishing, you can also replace
"holy shit!" with "holy cow!" or "holy moly!"
I personally like "holy moly" because it rhymes. Instead of son of a bitch, some people go
with "son of a gun!" So let's say you spill your coffee, instead of saying "Arg, son of a bitch!"
you can say "Arg, son of a gun!" Or some people go with the abbreviation of
son of a bitch, so SOB. Arg, he's such an SOB!
For insults, there's "buttface," which, I guess is the nicer version of "shit head." And,
yeah, this one is fun to use. If Mr. German Man is, you know, teasing me or making fun
of me or something like that, I might say, "Stop being such a buttface." But I think
kids use this one seriously, you know. This is an insult, like, "You're a buttface!" And
then even one step nicer and down from that you've got "meany face." And that one is, you
know, completely innocent. Hey! Stop being such a meany face! It's hard to say that with
a straight face. It just loses, you know...he's a meany face! Just loses its credibility.
At least buttface has butt in it.
In place of "fucking" I've heard "freaking," "flipping," and "frigging." So like "this
freaking thing is broken!" or "this flipping thing is kaput." Or "this frigging thing is
a piece of crap." And I don't know...for some reason, I get the feeling like "freaking"
and "frigging" are somehow slightly more offensive than "flipping." That "flipping" is just totally
innocent and the others, I don't know, they have kind of an edge to them. But that could just be me.
I'd love to hear what you think. Do you think that "freaking," "frigging," and "flipping"
are all the same? Or does one or two of them have more of an, an edge to them?
"Darn it!" or "dang it!" are often used instead of "damn it."
"Shoot" is often used instead of "shit." Oh shoot! I forgot his birthday.
"Heck" is often used instead of "hell." Heck no! I am not doing that! Or:
What the heck are you doing?
And if "crap" is even too vulgar for you, instead of "crap," instead of "aw crap!" you
could say "aw crud!"
So my question for you is: do these kinds of fake replacement swear words exist in your
native language? And where you're from, do people use replacement swear words or do they
just swear? And also, what other funny English ones can you think of? Please let me know
in the comments below. Thanks so much for watching. Please don't forget to subscribe
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Until next time, auf Wiedersehen!
F***! S***! M*****f*****! A** h***! B****! To actually hear the curse words, go watch
the other video on swearing. Replacement swear words...
"Heck" is often used instead of "hell" like...
"Fudge" and "fuck" both start with F-U...haha fuck you...
Also what other....
People in the U.S....wow, I got stuck on that one!