Ladies and gentlemen, this is how not to swear in English.
Guys, this is such an important lesson to learn. Now I know that you know all the English
swear words anyway. I know that you know them, don't pretend like you don't. They are the
first words that we learn, aren't they? I mean, the swear words are the first words
that we learn in any language. How do I know that because the first French words I learned
were swear words. The first Spanish words I learned were swear words. The first Cantonese
words I learned were swear words. And it is quite enjoyable to swear in another language,
you know, I admit that. But in certain contexts, it's completely not ok. So at work for example,
really not appropriate to swear in English at work. Around children, it's another place
where I think it's really not ok to swear and to be honest in a lot of situations. Unless
I'm with people that I feel very comfortable with or I'm at football, I'm very careful
not to swear. So we need to be aware of our context, about where we are and who we are
with, if we are going to swear. We as Eat Sleep Dreamers, I think we should be able
to express ourselves without using swear words. We don't need to use them. There are so many
other ways to express how we feel without using swear words. And actually we're going
to get really creative today. We're going to find some words that are actually way more
fun to use than swear words. You can start to bring in Shakespeare, Roald Dahl, film
quotes. We're going to be looking at all of those today and we're going to find out ways,
creative ways to not swear. Alright? So if you are up for it, this is going to be a fun
lesson, ok?
Alright, let's start off with a classic one. This word. Now a euphemism we use to describe
this word is the f-bomb. So you could say 'I try not to use the f-bomb' and that means
I try not to use that word, ok? So already there's a nice word, a euphemism we can use
to avoid saying that word. So the f-bomb. Quite an informal phrase here is 'He dropped
the f-bomb'. to drop the f-bomb is kind of like, he said that word, the f-word. That's
another way we could describe it is the f-word, ok? So it's the f-word or the f-bomb. Now
an alternative you could use, I mean you could say 'for crying out loud!'. That's quite a
good one 'oh for crying out loud!' You could say 'Blast!' A slightly old fashioned one
is 'Fiddlesticks!' A bit old fashioned, it's quite sweet so you know you could use that
one 'oh fiddlesticks!' And again it starts with F so it kind of helps you to express
what you feel but without saying the full F-word, you can say 'Oh fiddlesticks!'.
We also use the f-word with up to suggest that we made a mistake 'oh I effed-up'. In
fact 'to eff up' is quite a nice way to avoid using the f-word 'Oh I effed up'. So I made
a mistake. You could also say I screwed up. That's quite good or I messed up. "I totally
messed up.' Same thing. So you can avoid saying the f-word quite nicely. I effed up, I screwed
up, I messed up. With the -ing it's sed as an adverb as well to intensify our feelings
about something. So alternatives might be like flipping. 'It's flipping cold, isn't
it?' Or 'It's fricking cold' or 'freaking cold'. So you could say 'It's flipping cold,
isn't it?' or 'It's fricking cold'. Freaking maybe is slightly more American, possibly.
'Oh it's freaking cold, isn't it?' So all three you could use as an intensifier to intensify
how you feel about something. Again you could say 'That meal was flipping good.' So you
are avoiding saying the f-word but you are intensifying how you feel about something.
A nice alternative to the f-word with -ing is bleep. Now in films when there is a swear
word, certainly on tv, they used to bleep out the word. It's a sound. It's essentially
this. 'What the...' So that's to bleep out a word. So we use that as a word now. So for
example I might say 'I lost my bleeping phone' and that is expressing the f-word with the
-ing but we don't need to use it. We are being creative with the language we are using bleep
which is associated with swear words with foul language but we are using it in a creative
sense. The other classic word is this one. We call these four letter words. If you said
'he uses too many four letter words.' Four letter word kind of means, either that one
or the other one. So yeah again it's like a euphemism to talk about a swear word. So
for this four letter word, alternatives, the classic one would be 'Sugar!' Again it has
that S sound so it feels like you are about to say it but you avoid saying the word. So
you say 'oh sugar!' You could say 'oh shoot!' as well 'shoot'. So sugar, shoot. A really
soft one 'bother!' Again maybe slightly, a bit old fashioned maybe. A sort of classically
British one, slightly old fashioned again would be 'Gordon Bennett!' Now I don't know
who Gordon Bennett is or was. I don't know why we say his name but you'll hear it. Maybe
it's a kind of British thing, maybe it's a London thing as well 'Oh Gordon Bennett.'
You can use Gordon Bennett if you are surprised or you're annoyed. Yeah maybe it's one that
you might hear a native speaker say but you don't necessarily need to use that one. In
London we probably be use 'Blimey!' or 'Cor Blimey!' for example to show like surprise
or annoyance. Blimey, Crikey as well 'Crikey!' Again particularly with surprise or some kind
of exasperation 'Crikey!' Those very British ones Gordon Bennett, Blimey, Crikey good ways
to show that you are annoyed about something. Not necessarily swear words as such but if
you want to show that you are annoyed those are pretty good.
With this phrase we could avoid saying this by actually using the word S.O.B. 'What an
S.O.B.' Now we know from S.O.B. that it means that phrase so there is a connection and so
again I would be careful with things that have any connection to a swear word about
using that at work or around children or things lie that. I'd be very careful. But it's safer
than saying the full phrase. So 'what an S.O.B.' Alternatives could be 'Son of a gun!' that's
quite a classic one 'son of a gun!' 'Son of a mother trucker!' That's a good one. I've
heard recently 'son of a bachelor' as well. I guess you could be quite creative with this
you could kind of go 'son of a...' whatever you want. I've also heard 'son of a motherless
goat' I mean, yeah, alright it's a nice alternative. The thing is again I would be a bit careful
about using that anywhere formal, it's quite obvious what it actually means. It's quite
aggressive so yeah, but it's an alternative. My favourite, instead of saying this phrase
you could say 'shut the front door!' That's brilliant, I love that one. We understand
what it means but you avoid the rude words. So that's often used in surprise. So if someone
had said something surprising to you, you could say 'shut the front door!' Similar to
S.O.B. is BS. Now BS stands for that. Kind of like nonsense essentially. 'Oh that's nonsense'
And you can say 'that's BS' "You are talking BS' It means you are talking nonsense. Again
people understand what BS stands for so use it wisely in the context you are in.
Instead of using this phrase you could say 'what the heck!' So maybe somebody has done
something stupid and you say 'what the heck!' 'What the heck are you doing!' Or you could
say 'what the eff are you doing!' Again you are avoiding the full word but there is obviously
with eff, there is association so you are linking it to the full word. So 'what the
heck' is probably a safer word to use here but what the eff has he done now'. Now there
are hundreds of words to describe someone as an idiot. If you want to describe someone
as an idiot there is a variety of words. Some extraordinarily rude but there are some alternatives,
some creative alternatives that we can use. So yeah, like 'you're an idiot!' That's a
classic one 'what an idiot!' 'What a plonker!' In British English plonker is quite a common
one, it's quite a classic one. 'Oh what a plonker!' it juts means an idiot. I've heard
a lot more recently like a douche. In American English it's come over here 'oh what a douche!'
So I would say that's probably not too rude. In addition you could say 'What a twit!' That's
quite a soft one, I would say 'what a twit!' But do you know what, I think if you are going
to insult somebody, if you are going to call them an idiot you should be creative with
this word. This is your chance to shine, to show that you have humour as part of your
language. Because I think that's a huge part of language is being funny with it, being
playful with it. So I'm going to look to two Britain's greatest writers for inspiration.
Let's start with Shakespeare. How would Shakespeare insult someone?
Roald Dahl invented so many words that we can use some of them and they are so fun and playful. We could use one of
those to insult somebody.
And how about films? Why don't we look to films and tv to find
fantastic ways or creative ways to insult someone. Because if you are going to insult
someone do it in a fun creative way. So one of my favourite films is Elf played by
Will Ferrel. Played by Will Ferrel. Now Will Ferrel in Elf uses some amazing language and
one of my favourites is.
I mean, is that not the best insult you've ever heard without
actually being rude? If you do one thing this week please use that phrase. It's too funny.
This is a really fun phrase.If somebody uses a lot of swear words in their language or
in their vocabulary we say they have a potty mouth. So for example you might say 'My brother
has a real potty mouth' and that tells me that he says a lot of swear words. You could
also say a foul mouth to have a foul mouth. 'He has a foul mouth' he says a lot of rude
words. Now I don't know about where you guys are but I remember in a previous place that
I used to work we had a swear jar. This was a jar and every time that somebody swore in
the office you have to put a pound in to the swear jar. And it was a really good way of
stopping people from swearing because as soon as you did it, you would be like 'oh no, what
did I do!' Ok, a pound in the swear jar and you know if you had a potty mouth or a foul
mouth you'd lose a lot of money in the week. So this is a really good way to stop people
from swearing and to get them to use more creative ways to express themselves.
I suggest you try that. If you work in an office where there is too much swearing. I
suggest you introduce a swear jar. If you want to avoid swearing in your writing then
we can use all the different symbols that are used in punctuation to replace key letters
in the word. So I've been using it through out this video and we will look at some other
examples of how you can avoid actually writing the swear word itself but you can suggest
what it is. Obviously this is extremely informal and I wouldn't be using this in any kind of
serious writing but I wouldn't be swearing in any serious writing. In a business document
or whatever, clearly so this is again for when you are talking to your friends or whoever
but you don't want to swear this is a nice alternative.
Eat Sleep Dreamers, how was that? Did you enjoy that lesson? How NOT to swear in English.
If you enjoyed it, please give it a big like, big thumbs up and if you know anyone who would
enjoy that video then please share it with them. Share it with someone that's learning
English or your English class or your English teacher. Please share this video with them,
that would be amazing, thank you so much. Remember guys I've got new videos every Tuesday
and every Friday teaching you fresh modern British English so that you can take your
English to the next level. That's why I'm here, ok? Thank you so much for hanging out
with me today. Until next time this is Tom, the chief Dreamer, saying shut the front door!