I used to swear a lot. I decided to not swear at all (except for possibly mild swears), instead replacing most swears with minced oaths.
My family is Christian and I would get yelled at for swearing even if it just slipped out. So far, I don’t swear unless I’m feeling a strong emotion or acting impulsively, but I’ll usually say things like “F/eff” or “fudge” instead of the F-word.
I like to be “creative”, so my go-tos are usually “Go fudge yourself”, or “What the cluck?”
I might say “mother lover” instead of MF
No, it would do my mother tongue a disservice! There are so many flowery and imaginative ways to express emotions using swearwords in Polish…
Not me. I’d explode without swearing. I made a point to avoid gendered swear words though. And also to not use them in arguments.
I tend not to swear. I never swear in front of children since it’s very common for parents to hate that. If I do swear, it’s usually from something drastic, like a lot of pain or if I’ve messed something up irreperably. I avoid explatives in normal situations though, and when I use them I prefer to use a goofier explatives than a swear, like “ay ay ay” or “uff da” and things like that. I just find it more fun, and keeps my mentality light in a rough situation. I grew up religious, so I have an unreasonable hatred or replacement words and won’t use them.
I will use curse words in phrases that I think require them, such as “shit-eatting grin” or “shitshow” because I don’t know phrases that describe those things any more aptly.
Fuck no. Though I have removed gendered swears from use.
You son of a snitch, I’m in.
It’s really just deliberately using terms like “asshole” and “shithead” instead of bitch and such.
As an online gamer:
Call someone a slur - boring, stupid, causes harm but rarely to the target.
Call someone an ‘absolute potato’ - seething rage, I am NOT a potato!no that’s fucking stupid
Which commandment does saying “fuck” violate?
No fucken way cunt!
I don’t understand why such minced oaths are socially acceptable among people who don’t want to swear for religious reasons. Do they really not realize that they’re thinking “fuck” and effectively saying “fuck”?!
And what about the Catholics who take the position that a sin in thought is just as evil as a sin in deed?
Either say “fuck” or stop even thinking “fuck”. Anything in between is disingenuous bullshit.
To answer your question, no. I try to comply with folks who don’t want me to swear around their kids, but I volunteer to do that as a courtesy and can’t be coerced into it except by real force, such as threatening my physical safety or livelihood.
I pump the brakes with the swearing if I’m around kids, complete strangers, or people I know really take offense to it, i’m honestly not trying to be rude on purpose.
But other than that, no. I swear a lot and have no intention to lessen that. It’s an excellent coping mechanism for stress and it doesn’t hurt anybody or, in fact, anything.
Replacing it with things like “what the cluck” would only add to the anger I feel in the moment because I think that’s horribly cringe.
I’ve considered removing or at least reducing swearing in my common language usage, but I don’t consider it enough to just replace swearing with placeholder words. “What the fudge” doesn’t work, in my mind, because it is still clear to everybody what my brain was trying to say before my resolution not to swear intervened. “What on earth are you talking about?” Much better.
I kind of realised through running that through to its end that what my issue was, with swearing, was lazy use of language. So I still swear, but I try not to lean on the words as crutches.
Where this puts me, language usage-wise, is in a position where I’m using swearing as a tool to accentuate my meaning or express emotion succinctly, since I don’t swear as often it carries more weight.
For instance, my high school bully was a reprehensible human being but Donald Trump is a worthless fucking cunt.
I think swearing is good if not overused.
I’ve heard studies show that people who swear are trusted more, something about them coming across more open and genuine.
I agree, I save my good swears for special occasions.
I swore for emphasis in a job interview and got the job! It was definitely a risk but they received the message I was trying to convey so it worked.
My favourite is to exclaim “Shut the front door!” in conversation.
Swearing is brilliant if you smash your thumb with a hammer, or break something expensive. If you swear all the time in normal conversation you don’t have any special words left to use when those things I mentioned happen.
Shouting “asparagus” is just as good, neurologically. It’s the action that matters, not the word.
